Bright red skin and no feathers

[arwoon]

Very strange! It almost looks as if he's molting!

 

[Coops Dad]

Our main rooster got frostbite on his wattles during the February Freeze, when they defrosted, his ladies just about chewed the edges off and he didn't even seem to notice. I could tell it hurt when they'd nip at it but he'd just startle a bit and let them.

Roosters can be strange so don't discount that one or more of his hens might be a feather-eater.

 

[farmgirl216]

Our main rooster got frostbite on his wattles during the February Freeze, when they defrosted, his ladies just about chewed the edges off and he didn't even seem to notice. I could tell it hurt when they'd nip at it but he'd just startle a bit and let them.

Roosters can be strange so don't discount that one or more of his hens might be a feather-eater.

I’m not sure, they have been together since they were chicks. Would they start feather eating all of a sudden? Also I know they are toe eaters! I went into their pen today with sandals on and my toes were painted and they kept pecking my toes!! LOL

 

[farmgirl216]

Very strange! It almost looks as if he's molting!

I know very very strange!

 

[Coops Dad]

If there's no feathers on the ground, there's at least one feather eater in your flock.

 

[farmgirl216]

If there's no feathers on the ground, there's at least one feather eater in your flock.

Would they start out of the blue? They have been together since they were chicks.

 

[Coops Dad]

Sure, it could. It always starts at some point; the trigger could have been something as insignificant as a feather sticking out so the hen grabbed it. It was so good that she went back for seconds and so forth. The same reason I don't have beer in the house.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Have you checked him well for lice/mites?
The feathers are plucked and broken. How old is this rooster?
What do you feed?
I would observe behavior at night while roosting, I would suspect the ladies are plucking him.

He is the only rooster?

 

[farmgirl216]

Have you checked him well for lice/mites?
The feathers are plucked and broken. How old is this rooster?
What do you feed?
I would observe behavior at night while roosting, I would suspect the ladies are plucking him.

He is the only rooster?

I got all of them on 5/21/2020 as 3 day old chicks. Supposed to be all pullets. 3 amerucana and 3 cinnamon queens. Clearly they were not all pullets. Yes he is the only rooster we have now. For about 2-3 months I had another rooster in the pen with them but we re-homed him to a friend who was looking for a nice roo. I will re-check for mites/lice tomorrow. I have checked multiple times already. I live in southern West Virginia so it’s just now getting into the high 60s on rare occasions. I feed them high quality scratch grains that doesn’t have any dust in it. They also get oyster shell, vegetables, fruit, bread/biscuits/rolls/etc, meal worms, and they get to free range the yard atleast 3-4 days a week. We put straw down in their pen. I just don’t understand the issue being contained to one leg entirely and his butt. The only odd thing that happened was about 2 weeks-ish ago I was outside and we have pine trees over their pen and it was windy and a bat fell in their pen. Before I could say anything they all were ripping the poor thing to pieces. Not sure if that would have anything to do with it.

 

[farmgirl216]

Sure, it could. It always starts at some point; the trigger could have been something as insignificant as a feather sticking out so the hen grabbed it. It was so good that she went back for seconds and so forth. The same reason I don't have beer in the house.

It does make sense, if this is the case though how would I narrow down which hen it is? What do I do with her when I find out? My 5 girls started a few months back laying and they are doing great. I hate to get rid of one.