Balding Hen?

[jynnjynn]

I have a frizzle Japanese hen who has lost off the feathers on her neck. There are no scabs or blood, I cannot see any parasites on her. Her neck has been completely bald for almost 3 weeks now.

My first thought was that the bantam Cochin housed with her was pecking at her, but the Cochin was injured and had to be kept inside in isolation for a week and a half to recuperate, so my Japanese was in a coop all alone for that time and no feathers have regrown. I don't think she would be flexible enough to pull them out herself.

The cochin which was attacked by one of my standard hens sustained a pretty nasty wound, but HER feathers are already growing back, so I would expect the Japanese to have grown hers back by now as well if it were a picking problem.

Does anyone know of any reason she would just lose those feathers and not get them back? She looks ridiculous.

 

[azhenhouse]

Is she around a rooster? If not, could she be molting?

 

[hennyannie]

I had some EEs last year that looked like turkens when they were molting, I gave them to a friend and she sent some recent pics, they were beautiful.

 

[Qi Chicken]

A few of our hens also lost all the feathers around their necks with a molt. They look awfully darn scrawny don't they? We had a welsummer do this especially badly, I think she was a naked neck for about two weeks. I noticed tonight she was slightly less awful.

 

[cackydoodledoo]

I was wondering about this too. Have a SS that has lost most of her feathers on her neck and thought she might have something wrong. Checked her backside the other night and sure enough she is molting. Alot of my girls are molting right now!! Guess that explains the drop in egg production.

 

[azhenhouse]

Quote:
It's crazy how they stop laying. I went through the winter getting 8 to 10 eggs out of my 11 hens, and now I am down to 5 or 6 a day. They aren't even in a heavy molt. What is up with that?

 

[cackydoodledoo]

I don't know. I went from about 15-18 a day to 6!! I thought it was because I had stopped leaving the light on at night. It has warmed up here so I figured they didn't need it anymore. I figured shutting it off had screwed up there routine. DH kept telling me look at this hen and that hen and trying to show me where the others were pecking her. Upon closer inspection I found that they had bare butts but they weren't bloody or pecked so figured we must all have decided to molt at once. My eggs are back up to about a dozen so hopefully they are coming around now.

 

[chilling_witpeeps]

Yes your hen is likely molting mine have started molting and I think it's around the time chickens often molt

 

[jynnjynn]

Thanks guys

Glad to know it's probably nothing serious, but I wish she would hurry up! she USED to be my cutest chicken!

 

[azhenhouse]

Now she will be the most beautiful!