Broody Nesting Hen Going Bald

[lovepepper]

Hello!

I have a bantam Cochin hen (Bitey Pants, ~1.3 years old) who is going bald on the back of her head. She went broody about a week or so ago, and we already had another hen in our other nest box, so we had no open nest boxes in the main coop (I know you're not supposed to hatch eggs in the regular nest boxes in the coop, we're kind of decided to learn it the hard way anyways...) and having no open nests is obviously a problem.

We ended up moving Bitey and some "who cares" eggs into our other coop which we recently put back into service after leaving it unoccupied for 6 months and then deep cleaning and sterilizing. It's a much better place to raise chicks and we can segregate her from the laying birds. She freaked out at first, but then decided, "hey look eggs to sit on!" so she is in it for the long haul. After moving her she started losing the feathers on the back of her head. Half her head is now bald, after about 2-3 days.

The skin is not red, it looks fine and I don't see evidence of lice on her head. We do have a low level lice problem in our flock. However, I am an environmental chemist and I'm not going to roll my flock in pesticides. I know too much

Our soil is basically natural DE (dry and volcanic), so they do pretty well on frequent dust baths. If it were the lice, I would expect her whole butt to be bald before her head. I am also apt to discount the mites theory since we just cleaned and sanitized the coop and we've never had mite problems before (and again, her head skin looks great). She also can't be pulling her own feathers out (can't reach those ones).

For about 3 days we were housing another laying hen with her, however now there are only non-laying chickens in the coop (a rooster and two old hens) with her and no one else is having feather issues. I've never seen this rooster bother anyone on the nest, in fact I have seen him do the opposite and protect a hen on the nest. The other laying hen is her sibling, and I have never seen them fight, though she was laying an egg a day on the nest which is why we moved her (can't keep adding!). If another chicken ripped half the feathers out of her head, wouldn't there abrasions on the skin? I guess I would expect it to look irritated at the least?

The last thought I had is maybe she's molting for some odd reason? It's not the right time, our flock molts in the spring and the fall, so she shouldn't be losing stuff naturally until September.

So, does anyone have any idea what is happening to Bitey Pants!?

I will take some pictures tomorrow and add them.

Thanks!

 

[seminolewind]

The only thing I can think of is that a broody hen is an easy target for any hen who doesn't like her sitting there.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I vote for molting. When they molt they normally start in the head area. Are you seeing the feathers floating around? A chicken can molt any time of the year. The normal thing that kicks it off is the days getting shorter but stress can cause a molt. Moving her may have stressed her. Plus, I’ve had broody hens molt before in late summer but not yet fall. It was nice that she got her molt out of the way while raising her chicks so she was back to laying when the rest of the flock molted.

A chicken expert told me that the leading cause of death to a broody hen while she is on the nest is roost mites. Roost mites only come out at night and run from light.

Good luck!

 

[lovepepper]

Well, last night I noticed that one of her comb tips looked injured and today I found a small nick on the back of her head (and more feathers appear to be missing), so we've tossed the other chickens out on their tails and we'll be segregating her while she's on the nest. The stress of the move might have started it, but someone is sure helping it along!