Please help! I have a 2 year old australorp who has a tendency to go broody, last year she went broody and she got a red bald butt... We thought someone was picking on her, so we busted her broodieness and gave her extra protein and she feathered up nicely. Last month she started acting broody but I nipped it in the bud before she went full on broody, but... Her butt is red and bald. I have been researching mites thinking maybe she got them while spending extra time in her wood nest box. But I havent found one bug on her, but I don't really know what I am looking for . I keep a clean coop and I'm liberal with DE in the nest boxes. But we do get those darn wild birds in our run and coop a lot. I saw some red dust in my coop on the white walls so I'm going to treat for mites, but she is on the bottom of the pecking order so I was wondering if this is feather plucking. No other hens have bald butts, could she be the only one with mites or is this a feather plucking issue? I haven't seen any feathery plucking either but this weekend I'll keep an eye out.
And just to make everyone's day I thought I'd share this lovely sight:
[=https://www.backyardchickens.com/gallery/image/view/album/6035435/id/5141581/sort/display_order#][/
Any advise? Thanks! This weekend I'm going to start treating for mites but I wanted to know what you all thought.
And just to make everyone's day I thought I'd share this lovely sight:
[=https://www.backyardchickens.com/gallery/image/view/album/6035435/id/5141581/sort/display_order#][/
Any advise? Thanks! This weekend I'm going to start treating for mites but I wanted to know what you all thought.