Chickens & 1 Roo w/feather loss...not sure of cause, help please

[leeandtina]

Our flock of 12 hens and 1 roo has started to show signs of feather loss. We noticed over the past 2 months that the roo ( New Hampshire) had begun to loose feathers around his neck and behind the end of his wings, kinda above his top leg area if that makes sense. We could see him just recently peck at that area and noticed a dry area that looked like he might have broke the skin and it healed recently. His neck feathers are thinner and not as pretty as they had been. My daughter thinks they are growing back though. Now for the hens, they have feather loss kinda all over their body. They are almost a year old so I didn't know if this could be due to molting? I haven't seen clear pictures on this and I thought it was always followed by a set flow. Like neck to tail area. Our one hen has almost a bald area around her neck that. Then I got to wondering if it could be mites/lice/or some sort of worm? I tend to worry a bit and overthink things but I want them to be healthy. I am going to see if I can post a pic or two. I don't have any of the hens up close right now. But I can try to get that later. Also, they had been dusted in the fall and thier coop was as well after it was totally cleaned out. Me in my worry just totally cleared the coop again last Saturday but I wasn't sure if it was okay to apply the dust for mites again. Has anyone hear of using Borax for the coop and flock as well? I thought I read that somewhere as an alternative to the kind bought at Tractor Supply.

Okay, I can't seem to figure out how to attach a picture here. Can someone help me out with that? I see something I can click on below that say img tag: on n but is that it?

 

[mypicklebird]

Pick them up and inspect around the feather bases closely for lice. If you see them, dust with poultry dust (pyrethrin) or sevin (carbaryl), and repeat in 2 weeks. Start inspecting them at least once a month to check for lice/mites which and treat when you see them again.

 

[leeandtina]

okay think i am doing this right for pics

and

okay i figured it out

now the first pic just shows how his neck feathers have thinned and are not the long pretty colorful ones he used to have. the second one is of brusters area that has the feather loss and the place where he (?) picked at it. it isn't raw now though...it actually is dry looking.

we have looked really close and haven't seen anything moving about on them. the mites we might not see during the day, is that right? we've tried looking in their coop at night with a flashlight but haven't seen anything moving about. i have never seen lice so what would they look like?

 

[leeandtina]

just bumping this up to see if anyone has any help w/identifying the lice or other thoughts on what this could be