chicken going bald

[alisonmooore]

Hello we are total novices at this chicken thing and I wondered if anyone can help us?. We have a chicken who is now going bald on her head as well as on her back just before her tailfeathers, we also have one with a bare bum!maybe we should cover our eyes!!!,also their skin is very red,is this normal?

 

[chickenlover96]

yes it is normal its molting they do it once a year new feathers will come in soon

 

[NYC feather fam]

I am also a novice, but to me it sounds like they are molting....have you noticed any other changes in behavior or a decline in egg production? my EE molted last year (in the fall which is typical due to the decreasing light) and the others did not, almost all of the feathers on her neck were missing and many on her body were ragged but did not fall out much. She stopped laying at that time as well. Molting is normal but the red skin sounds like it could be cause for more concern though. My chicken's skin looked normal while she molted but I was very concerned at the time because I had never experienced it before. She did not resume laying until early in the spring.

It is a good idea to increase calcium and protein in their diet when they are molting as growing new feathers requires a lot of energy and molting can be stressful on the bird. I would instinctively think it would also be very important for them to have constant access to clean water during this time especially when it is hot. A good source of calcium and protein is yogurt (i give mine plain yogurt because a lot of sugar is not good) and they love it.

Hope this helps

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

It could be a molt, or since their skin is red it could be mites. Check them over for mites. If you don't see any crawling around, it is probably just molt.