balding chicken? *pics*

[poipollo]

my polish is losing feathers above and around her tail in sort of a triangular pattern. she was picked on by my other hens about two months ago and lost the feathers on a small part of her wing and on her back. the wound has since healed and there are small, dark pin feathers growing in, but it seems like a ton more feathers are now missing above that. there's basically a diamond shaped area of exposed skin going up her back from her tail. i have no roosters.

she's been acting completely normal, doesn't seem sick or anything. i bought dust just in case it's mites, but has anyone ever had this happen before? i'm fairly new to chickens and this is bothering me a lot.

it looks worse and the bald spot is more pronounced in person. the black dots on her skin in the first picture are the feathers growing back.

 

[chicmom]

That's a very common place for feather pulling. Another hen is probably sneaking up behind her and "WHAM" pulling out feathers. If you spray a little bit of blue cote on there, it coats the bare skin, and take the attention away from it. Bare pink skin is very attractive to a hen.

Better yet, if you watch, you can often see which hen is doing the pecking, and get rid of her. She could do that to your entire flock.

 

[poipollo]

i have some left over from when they were picking on her, so i'll definitely try that. thanks! i only have one other hen (had to rehome the others because they were too loud - i live in the city and didn't realize hens could make so much noise!), so if it is feather pulling, it's got to be her. unless the polish is pulling out her own feathers...