Broken Feathers

[cherp68]

We have 2 Red Sex-Links who are not quite a year old. We live in southwestern Ontario where we'er have mix of weather this winter. My concern is that our more dominant girl has a patch of feathers on her back that are broken roughly 1/4" from her skin. I don't what the proper name for the area is, back, side close to tail feathers. She does have a bit of mites but not really bad.
I read the previous posts and am wondering if this too is from boredom. Unless the temperature is around 0 degrees celcius they don't come out of their coop. They have been eating & drinking like crazy and still giving us an egg per day. When they do come out they seem fine & have the normal amount of energy. When they roam around they general stick to the path we clear of snow for us to walk from the house to the garage to their coop which is behind the garage. It also serves and the run for the dog. The chickens don't want to step in the snow (I can't blame them for that!).
We have been on the hunt for a rat that seems to either be under the coop or in the garage - we have a trap but it has eluded us. The darn thing has even chewed the wood plank floor of the coop!
The chickens skin around the broken feathered area is in tact with no apparent signs of trauma.

Does this sound also like our other girl is pecking at her or do they do this to themselves? They are very used to roaming the entire yard & eating anything in sight.

 

[azygous]

You've just described exactly what's happening to my nine month old SLW pullet Alice - same spot on her back in front of the tail. It's not a roo problem, either, since Stan has strictly rationed access to his nine girls. I had assumed it was molt, but then since she's been inside in an infirmary crate due to getting her comb ripped off and subsequent partial dubbing two days ago, I noticed no sign of molting feathers being shed.

I'm now leaning toward the problem being part of her victim status. It appears she's very low in the pecking order, but she isn't very alert and defensive and fast like the other one at the bottom, who's very fast and alert and rarely gets pecked.

It's hard to catch the bullies in the act, though, so unless you get a bloody injury like Alice got this time, you are resigned to guessing.

I see no sign of mites in Alice, either.

I'll be interested in seeing if anyone can come up with a cause for yours and mine.

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

what I always did was this
cover the area around and the feathers that are broken with black roffing tar
it is thin and will eventually come off
but allows the bad birds who peck to stop the pecking
also may I suggest these things to do for the hens

1. feed whole horse oats and granite grit in a self feeder, as well as feeding the commercial protein feed

2. hang a head of cabbage dark leaves and all wrapped in a piece of chicken wire, hANG TILL IT IS 1 FT FROM FLOOR FROM CEILING

3. HANG A PIECE OF BALED ALFALFA WRAPPED IN CHICKEN WIRE FROM CEILING TO DT FROM FLOOR
WHEN BOTH 2 AND 3 ARE EMPTY IN TOTAL VOLUME REFILL THE CHICKEN WIRE HOLDERS WITH MORE CABBAGE AND ALFALFA HAY

all this is good for feather growth and chickens to lay and ot be bored
email any questions