My beautiful little girl used to be the same partridge pattern (maroon and black) all over, then all of a sudden one morning she's missing almost all of their head feathers! This was a week ago.. No more change, and she looks and acts healthy. Help! It's cold outside! http://i39.tinypic.com/seq7mq.jpg http://i39.tinypic.com/xpwvaa.jpg
Hello and Welcome To BYC! Is she molting? From those pictures it looks like it might be pin feathers / new feathers coming in, does she have others coming in under her old feathers in other places? Here is a thread to a BYC contest for worst chicken molting pictures for examples. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-worst-chicken-molt-pictures-fall-winter-2013
I agree, she has pin feathers on her head. Either she molted her head feathers out, or other chicken(s) have been pulling her feathers out. It surely looks like they are growing back, so no problem. You may want to examine her for mites and other chickens as well.
She's molting - nothing to worry about just the annual shedding and replacement of feathers. Welcome to BYC.
Thanks, Everyone, and Happy New Year!! My banty has grown her head back in nicely, but now two more issues! 1) My eggs have been in the 41 egg incubator with auto turner for 7 days, and I just lost power this morning for 5.5 hours, which slowly brought the temp down from 99.5F to 70F. Should I just eat my eggs and start over with fresh ones? My oldest eggs were laid 13 days ago but not placed into the incubator until 7 days ago. The oldest eggs all sat indoors at 60-70F until then. When I replaced one dirty egg with a fresh one for my final eggs added (I have to open once a day to add water and I was completely full of eggs in 6 days ; temp only dips to 80F when I do so), it did have a blood vessel clearly visible in the frying pan. 2) Someone (the rooster or the drake) stabbed my banty just below/behind her left eye, and her eye itself is fine, but her lower and upper eyelid swelled all up. I put eye ointment on it, and the swelling is back down, and new eyelid tissue is looking good both top and bottom, and she's full of energy. BUT ... the old upper and lower eyelid skin fused shut and is still there, blocking her vision. Her eyelids are essentially stuck closed. How do I get this skin to fall off and let her see on that side again? It's been about 2 weeks!
