Chicken's feathers are not growing back?

[OwO]

One of my three chickens (the one in my profile picture) is missing a few feathers on her wings and chest and the "density" of her plumage is very thin so you can easily see her skin if you run your fingers through her feathers. They definitely all have access to water and food (layer mash and pellets) 24/7 and they all definitely know where it is and they all get around an hour of free range time per day on weekdays and around 3 - 6 hours per day on weekends. She is about 1.5 years old now and is still very active and is showing no other signs of illness. She is the smallest of our hens and at the bottom of the pecking order but does not get bullied at all - they all get on with each other pretty well. She is still laying daily but for some reason has bald spots. I'm 99% sure she is not moulting as she has been like this for months now and one of my other birds has completed a full moult during the time she has been like this. I'm also pretty sure she doesn't have mites as she is not scratching / preening / dust bathing an abnormal amount, though I will powder them just to make sure. There are also no feathers on the floor of their run, so I'm not really sure what's going on. Could she just have lost them once ages ago and not have had them grow back? What food will help with feather growth?

Thanks.

Edit: also I forgot to mention it's also probably not due to being cramped up or anything. They have a very big run (around 8 x 20 x 6.5 ft I think, though I have a feeling it's a bit bigger) and their coop is also pretty big, so they have a lot of space even when not free ranging.

 

[OwO]

any ideas?

 

[Mrs. K]

Birds molt differently. I had one once, that when I opened the coop, it looked like a pillow fight had gone on, and she was nearly naked... but regrew feathers in about 2-3 weeks. She molted hard and fast. But I have had others, that never really get bare, they just get thinnly feathered, and much more slowly, grows back the feathers.

Feathers take good protien, and I think there is actually a feather growing feed. You might try that.

If mine are active, I really don't worry about them. Sick birds are not active and not laying.

Mrs K

 

[OwO]

Thank you

I'll see if I can find any feather-growing feed.

 

[aart]

You can buy special feather food...or supplement protein in other ways.

I like to feed a 'flock raiser' 20% protein crumble to all ages and genders, as non-layers(chicks, males and all molting birds) do not need the extra calcium that is in layer feed and chicks and molters can use the extra protein. Makes life much simpler to store and distribute one type of chow that everyone can eat.

Calcium should be available at all times for the layers, I use oyster shell mixed with rinsed, dried, crushed chicken egg shells in a separate container.

Animal protein (mealworms, a little cheese - beware the salt content, meat scraps) is provided during molting and if I see any feather eating.

The higher protein crumble also offsets the 8% protein scratch grains and other kitchen/garden scraps I like to offer