Chicken losing feathers

[acraiger]

Have one chicken that is losing feathers really bad. This has been happening for the last 5 months, just took these pictures yesterday. She seems fine, does not appear to be hurt. She does now sleep in the nests has she has no feathers to fly up to the roost. She is also still laying eggs. I though she had bugs or something, but she is the only chicken losing feathers. My neighbor thinks she is being pecked on, but I never see her being pecked on.

Has anyone seen this before.

 

[Isaac 0]

Have you checked her for lice/mites?Try looking around the vent and lower wings.She may be trying to molt.Are you giving her a high protein diet?I see that your giving her bread.Bread is very bad for chickens and might be slowing down her molting processes.

 

[coach723]

I'm kind of wondering if you are dealing with multiple issues. Some of her feather loss looks like rooster damage. Are you seeing any pinfeathers coming in anywhere, I can't really see well enough in the pictures? She may be molting on top of that. Also may be getting feather picked. More submissive birds will get topped more often by roosters, causing damage, they are also more likely to get picked on by other birds. Even in the absence of a rooster, some more dominate hens will display some rooster behavior, including mounting. If she is getting rooster damage, a hen saddle can help. (http://www.hensaver.com/) Checking for lice/mites is always a good idea when you have feather loss. Also, agree with previous post to discontinue bread. If you are feeding layer feed, I would switch to a higher protein grower or flock raiser feed, and offer oyster shell all the time free choice for their calcium in a separate feeding dish. Not enough protein can contribute to feather picking, and will inhibit growth of new feathers, growing feathers takes more protein. Also, you may need to consider adding a feeder or two in the event she is really submissive and not getting to the feeders enough and suffering from lack of nutrition. Too many treats, or the wrong kind can be an issue too, try to keep treats to 10% or less of their diet, and if they are growing feathers try to keep those to higher protein treats. Other causes of feather picking are boredom and overcrowding, and sometimes feather picking happens as they are going to roost at night if it's crowded in there. I'd spend some time observing your flock to try to narrow down what is going on. Just some ideas, hope they help.

 

[acraiger]

I thought about mites, but she is the only one. I would think that if it was mites, my other chickens would have issues. I did not know bread was bad, we usually just use bread to get them into the coop if we have to go somewhere, as we usually let them free range in our 1 acre yard all day. I think I may try separating her for a bit to see if she gets better. We don't have any roosters