Blood feathers on chicken butt?

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

Hi, I picked up Charlotte and brought her in for a bath this morning.

Yesterday I noticed Charlotte had a piece of a broken egg in her vent (she is 3++ yrs now, and the only one of her cohort still laying in the winter )

When I got her bum feathers wet I saw something I had not seen before. The base of her bum feathers seem to have blood. Are the butt feathers blood feathers? Are all chicken feathers blood feathers as they come in?

She isn't really molting, but she kind of always looks a little frazzled. She has never had a really nice molt, she just gets patchy then fills in.

Is this hormones as she enters her menopause?

Thanks

 

[sourland]

Yes, all chicken feathers are pin or 'blood' feathers as they come in.

 

[Countryhippie]

She is probably having a slow molt. It is a molt that is not really shown unless you look closely. Thats what my hens butt feathers looked like when they came it. It should go away in a few weeks.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

Thank you both

I would never have seen it if I had not wet her feathers, as the fluffy bit was covering it all up.

Glad it isn't a brand new thing to worry about.

Poor dear wouldn't win any beauty contest but I love her dearly.

Thanks again