Chickens losing feathers

[adkphillips]

We have 9 chickens in our coop. Today I noticed that 3 of the 9 have lots of missing feathers. (See photos, best I could do with running chickens). Any ideas? I don’t think this is molting.... and it’s actually worse than it looks in the pictures.

Oh, and these are spring chickens- Rhode Island reds and Isa browns

 

[RodNTN]

Do your chickens fight excessively? It could be picking.

 

[ronott1]

I would treat for lice and mites

 

[RodNTN]

She's only missing feathers at the base of her tail, I have had chickens lose feathers to mites and lice, but they had feathers missing mostly around the vent and under their wings.

 

[adkphillips]

Do your chickens fight excessively? It could be picking.

To be honest, I’ve never seen them fight at all.

 

[adkphillips]

I would treat for lice and mites

How would you treat for that?

 

[ronott1]

She's only missing feathers at the base of her tail, I have had chickens lose feathers to mites and lice, but they had feathers missing mostly around the vent and under their wings.

Feather lice can cause loss of feathers at the tail.

Could be an odd beginning to molting too.

I wonder if there has been a feed change recently?

 

[ronott1]

How would you treat for that?

Poultry dust. You can look for lice in the feathers too.

 

[twilightgecko]

no rooster on grounds?
most of mine are molting, but that looks different than my gals.. can you get a good look at them? see if there are lice attached to the feather shafts in that area?

 

[ronott1]

no rooster on grounds?
most of mine are molting, but that looks different than my gals.. can you get a good look at them? see if there are lice attached to the feather shafts in that area?

One reason for the feed change is feather picking. It is often a response to low protein in the feed