butt has plucked feathers

[jlj1212]

Hi we just got a few new hens ( about a year old) and today we noticed one of the new ladies seems to have her butt feathers plucked.. her butt isn't swollen or anything just slightly red because feathers are missing, should we be concerned ?
She seemed to be the bully of the old group and now that they are blended in she's seeming to have a hard time of where to fit.
Could she just be being picked on ?
TIA

 

[cafarmgirl]

Did you have these birds in quarantine before putting them with your other birds? And did you allow them at least a week or two to let the older flock and new flock get used to each other through a fence before putting them together? Spend some time watching and see if she's getting pecked, especially when they are in the coop, integration can be difficult sometimes. If there seems to be one or two birds that are instigators you can pull them out for a few days or a week and see if things settle down, then try putting them back in. Make sure you have enough room in your coop and run and that crowding is not the source of the problem.

Have you checked them all over carefully for mites?

 

[jlj1212]

Yep kept them apart and allowed them to get to know each other thru chicken wire. our coop/run is more than big enough, when we built it last summer we just went huge! Its comparable to coops that hold 12+ chickens, and the run is pretty big as well. The new ladies still seem to stay away from the older ladies.. they hide out in the coop all day while the others run around, There doesn't seem to be as much pecking going on as when we last introduced chickens, ( we didn't know what we were doing the first time around so we just dumped the new ones in with the first set and crazy pecking order went on for a few days! didn't want that so researched it this time!) so I don't know if it's happening at night or what. When we see pecking going on we stop it. How could we check for mites ? All the chickens have access to dirt to take baths so that should keep mites away correct ?
Sorry we've only had chickens for about 8 months so still newbies here!

 

[cafarmgirl]

How I look for mites is to just pick up each bird and go over it very carefully, checking the base of the feathers and down to the skin, especially under the wings, around the vent and the belly. I also go into the coop at night with a flashlight and check the roosts for mites since they come out at night to feed. Dust bathing helps but they can still get mites.

Maybe also give them lots of distractions, toss in some flakes of alfalfa to tear apart, you can toss a little scratch or meal worms into the hay to make for more foraging fun, toss in leaves or grass clippings to scratch through. Hopefully things will settle down. But keep a close eye, if this is indeed from pecking you don't want them to progress to drawing blood.