Neck feathers--lice, mites, stress?

[Summer98]

I'm still not sure what the deal is with the feather loss around my chickens' necks. I see no evidence of the lice or mites that I see in pictures. But what I do see is feather loss concentrated only around the necks (both front and backs of necks). I know the rooster pulls some feathers off the backs of their necks, but that doesn't explain the fronts. On the rooster, his neck feathers look moth-eaten, meaning the feathers are still in place, but the tips are chewed off and messy looking. It goes in a complete circle around his neck. No where else on the body are feathers looking similar. There are no bugs identified on the vents. This is totally concentrated around the necks of all my chickens. I don't see any bugs on their bodies or any eggs. Lately, the skin where the feathers are gone looks red.

We have used Garden & Poultry Dust with Permethrin, but no improvement. I think I will try using this again and see. If no luck, then I will try Poultry Protector.

What would cause a moth-eaten feather and feather loss around necks?

 

[sourland]

Do you have one or two hens in the flock that are in 'good feather'? If so they are feather pluckers/eaters who are pulling feathers on the rest of the flock.

 

[Eggcessive]

I agree with Sourland--I have had several chickens who have had feathers plucked out around their necks or beards over the years usually by a roost mate at night. Sometimes the pickee is lower in the pecking order.

 

[coopmaid]

Many times chickens like to dust themselves in the sand or dirt.... this can be a problem if you have dirt mites. Florida is known for sand mites. Sometime you cannot see them on their skin. some chickens are more sensitive to these mites and lose hair. If u feel u have lice or mites on your chickens... Take a old pillow case and put sevin dust inside of it .... You will need two people to do this procedure. Put (one at a time) the chicken inside pillow case NOT THEIR HEADS!.... Gather the bag around chickens neck and the second person shake the bag while holding the body. Making sure the chicken is covered is the key. Do not allow chicken to breath the sevin dust. Furthermore, areas where they dust themselves sprinkle sevin dust... Treating Their living areas would be a plus .....and Change all their bedding in the nest. Good luck. I had a horse who would roll in the sands here in Florida... He was the only one who got an itchy skin from the dust mites.... I used sevin dust on the sand pitted area and directly on his coat .... Works great! Oh! Treat your barnyard too .. This stuff ..kills fleas too.

 

[coopmaid]

Oh forgot suggested strength ...sevin dust strength 5% is safe to use

 

[Summer98]

Hmmm, now I'm wondering if it could be them pecking at each other/feather eating, as you suggest. I don't have too may hens that look good and don't have feather loss, but some are definitely worse than others. I thought it strange that even my rooster is affected. Especially since we've been using permethrin dust, there shouldn't be lice.

 

[Eggcessive]

Mites can be hard to see unless you look for them at night when they come out, or find them in cracks and crevices where they hide during the day. They are also just about impossible to completely get rid of if they are in your coop. The coop has to be emptied of litter, dusted several times over a period of weeks so that the eggs are killed. I would keep looking for your cause of the bare patches. For feather picking you may need to increase the protein of the food, increase their room, or reduce boredom by giving them something to do.

 

[arpyhh]

Is there another remedy? I can't get Sevin here in Canada.. :-/

 

[luvchickies13]

My chickens are losing their fluffy feathers on the side of their cheeks. I am curious as to whether anyone has any answers in regards to the loss of feathers. they are scratching the general vacinity however I have seen no such loss in 3 years of chickens rearing. These 4 chickens are 3 different breeds and 3 different ages including, sussex and americanas does anyone know what may cause this condition?

 

[Summer98]

My rooster pulls out the feathers on the backs of their necks when he's mating them. But that doesn't explain the whole neck area.