Brahma losing feathers? Bare skin showing.

[ahklose]

Hey there I have 2 brahmas, one has all of its down, the other is as shown above. Is this molting or what? The other chickens aren't attacking it, but it does spend most of its time in the coop, whereas, the other 3 chickens love getting out on the grass. The other 3 have no molting like this.

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC. That looks like a common place for feather picking by another chicken. You might catch them doing it when you spend time watching them. Some use products like BluKote to stain the red area blue so they aren't prone to peck at it, or a bad tasting ointment such as Bag Balm or Ben Gay to help prefent pecking. Reasons for feather picking are over crowding, too little protein in the diet, or not getting outside all day to free range.

 

[HisJewel]

Hey there I have 2 brahmas, one has all of its down, the other is as shown above. Is this molting or what? The other chickens aren't attacking it, but it does spend most of its time in the coop, whereas, the other 3 chickens love getting out on the grass. The other 3 have no molting like this.

The only two cockerels I have in my group of 9 brahmas look the exact same way! The others have all down and feathers... they all preen a lot but I've seen no pecking or bullying each other... I wondered if it was mites but I've sprayed and used DE so I'm still trying to figure it out also. This is my first time with Brahma's so I wasn't sure if it was them as my other chickens such as my Barred Rock, my Buff Orpington, my Road Island Red and my Blue Laced Wyandotte do not have any of this going on... I'm concerned they will not grow their feathers back.