bruised chicken eye?

[chickenfarmerj]

hi,
Just wondered if someone might know- I noticed yesterday morning after walking into the coop that one of my smaller hens had what looks like the color of a black eye on a person around one of her eyes, is this possible? Can hens get bruised eyes like that? If so, I am thinking maybe one of the roosters did this, or a hen, she does get pecked around a lot and picked on. She seems alright otherwise. Also some of the hens in the coop including her are completely bare on half of their back and they don't seem to be re-growing their feathers, this happened early spring. We have 7 roosters to 37 hens, could this be why? Please no responses about culling roosters, we raise for eggs and no butchering here!
TIA!

 

[Miss Lydia]

you don't say what age your flock is, it could be a number of things, lice/mites check them over real good for that and treat if you see any. roosters over breeding the girls, which you say you don't want to cull, but there are other alternatives, rehome, or buy saddles for the girls.. is their skin broken where the feathers are missing? or there could be a feather picker among your flock, how many of the hens are featherless? if this has been going on since spring I'd say pecking or over mating. P.S. you don't need 7 roosters for 37 hens, most say 1 roo for every 10 hens.