Chicken feathers not growing properly

[Hollyeb5]

My chicken is 8, almost 9 years old so I understand this might be age related. But does anyone know what this is called, or if there's actually an issue/treatment or should I just leave her as it is. It is just on her tail feathers. My chickens have a lot of space to roam so I know its not an issue of spacing, but was wondering if there's anything I should do or is she just lazy

 

[AprilsZoo]

That is weird... it looks like a sheath or sleeve sort of tube around the base there.
If she’s tame enough maybe you can get ahold of her for a closer look... Does it look like if you could split the tube there would be feather under there? Maybe you could look at the one that seems to have a hole in the sheath/tube halfway down, and see if that looks like normal feather there that’s just being compressed & not fluffing out like it should??
Definitely looks odd to me. Hopefully someone with real experience will come along with a better answer.

 

[coach723]

Looks like she molted and grew new tail feathers and the sheaths have not come completely off yet. They usually take care of this themselves while preening. I'd just leave them alone, they will likely come off soon. Flight feathers in the tail and wings often have much thicker shafts and may take a bit longer to flake off.

 

[roosterhavoc]

My chicken is 8, almost 9 years old so I understand this might be age related. But does anyone know what this is called, or if there's actually an issue/treatment or should I just leave her as it is. It is just on her tail feathers. My chickens have a lot of space to roam so I know its not an issue of spacing, but was wondering if there's anything I should do or is she just lazy View attachment 2538989View attachment 2538986

I’ve seen this a few times with my own birds but always roosters. Most times the sheaths eventually come off through preening but it seems like the sheath is always thicker than normal or grows out too far. I have no clue why this happens. 9 times out of 10 the tail feathers on roosters don’t look as good either. Too much protein? No idea? I have yet to find a legitimate answer that wasn’t purely a guess.

 

[Hollyeb5]

That is weird... it looks like a sheath or sleeve sort of tube around the base there.
If she’s tame enough maybe you can get ahold of her for a closer look... Does it look like if you could split the tube there would be feather under there? Maybe you could look at the one that seems to have a hole in the sheath/tube halfway down, and see if that looks like normal feather there that’s just being compressed & not fluffing out like it should??
Definitely looks odd to me. Hopefully someone with real experience will come along with a better answer.

She is quite tame so I've had a look and it does seem that there are feathers underneath, there's no way of me getting it off without cutting it as it does seem to be attached at the bade. Luckily it doesn't seem to be a big deal and I'll probably just leave it. My hen doesn't seem to be bothered by it so hopefully all is good

 

[coach723]

It looks very normal to me. I would not do anything, eventually those sheaths will come off naturally.

 

[Chickensandhorsesforlife]

my chickens feathers are scruffed up and her wings are really frayed. I am very curious.

 

[coach723]

my chickens feathers are scruffed up and her wings are really frayed. I am very curious.

Do you have some pictures? How old is your bird?

 

[Chickensandhorsesforlife]

Do you have some pictures? How old is your bird?

I will post pics soon. She is 2 years old. It will be about an hour for the pics though

 

[hobbychickenfarms]

Could be age related. I just posted pics of my own hen having issues like that with the sheaths bare and not feathering. My hen is also 8 almost 9. Maybe its just something that happens when that get that age?