How can you tell if feather loss is from molting or feather picking/bullying? All of my girls are 9 months old. I’ve been noticing some feathers in the coop and run that all appear to be from the same hen. I figured out which one it was because her tail feathers started looking sparse. Now, she has no tail feathers.
I examined her and noticed she is missing feathers around her vent, but has lots of pin feathers coming in. She also has areas along her back and neck (all over really) where you can see pin feathers, but no obvious feather loss/balding. Same on her head, around her face, and both muffs. I see NO balding…just lots of pin feathers. The regrowth is symmetrical on her face and head. The only area where I could see skin was around her vent, but it is filling in nicely with pin feathers that are sprouting fluff.
Could she be having a mini molt due to stress? We had a crazy cold spell and we moved their roosting bars lower, away from the air vents, before the temperature dropped. The weather and the roosting change could have stressed her. She has always been skittish and seems to freak out about everything. She also stopped laying a few days after the cold spell hit.
She’s at the higher end of the pecking order and I haven’t seen any feather picking. Coop size is a little small for 9 birds. Most of them are pretty small birds, but it’s 24 sq feet on the floor and then the 5 nesting boxes extend from the side so they don’t eat into the floor space. The run is 152 sq ft and they also have a nice sized chicken yard where they can run and “free-range” under supervision. I try to let them out at least an hour or two a day. Not sure on footage of the roosting bars, but it should definitively be more than 1 foot per bird. Feed is All Way Crumbles (20% protein).
Any ideas or advice on how to tell if she’s just stress molting or being bullied? I posted pics of her vent area as well as their coop/run/yard setup. (One pic is before the free range yard was added).
I examined her and noticed she is missing feathers around her vent, but has lots of pin feathers coming in. She also has areas along her back and neck (all over really) where you can see pin feathers, but no obvious feather loss/balding. Same on her head, around her face, and both muffs. I see NO balding…just lots of pin feathers. The regrowth is symmetrical on her face and head. The only area where I could see skin was around her vent, but it is filling in nicely with pin feathers that are sprouting fluff.
Could she be having a mini molt due to stress? We had a crazy cold spell and we moved their roosting bars lower, away from the air vents, before the temperature dropped. The weather and the roosting change could have stressed her. She has always been skittish and seems to freak out about everything. She also stopped laying a few days after the cold spell hit.
She’s at the higher end of the pecking order and I haven’t seen any feather picking. Coop size is a little small for 9 birds. Most of them are pretty small birds, but it’s 24 sq feet on the floor and then the 5 nesting boxes extend from the side so they don’t eat into the floor space. The run is 152 sq ft and they also have a nice sized chicken yard where they can run and “free-range” under supervision. I try to let them out at least an hour or two a day. Not sure on footage of the roosting bars, but it should definitively be more than 1 foot per bird. Feed is All Way Crumbles (20% protein).
Any ideas or advice on how to tell if she’s just stress molting or being bullied? I posted pics of her vent area as well as their coop/run/yard setup. (One pic is before the free range yard was added).
