Depluming Mites?

[sorenheart]

I was doing a vent check last night of all my chickens, and I noticed my rooster’s butt looked quite red a little bit below his vent area. It doesn’t appear to be red everywhere, just in a few of the spots I checked. I’m wondering if it could be depluming mites. He’s not preening himself more than usual, from what I’ve seen. He’s also not losing any feathers and doesn’t have any bare spots that I can see. I had to move a bunch of his fluff aside to take a picture of this spot. Can someone lend some insight into why his skin appears this way?

 

[nuthatched]

Depluming mites would destroy the feathers, he could be getting picked or have normal mites.
You can give the coop a dust of permethrine if more than one bird has this.

 

[sorenheart]

Depluming mites would destroy the feathers, he could be getting picked or have normal mites.
You can give the coop a dust of permethrine if more than one bird has this.

I didn’t see this kind of redness on any of my girls, but I will check again tonight. I read that active roosters naturally have red behinds due to hormones, but it almost looks like he has pimples back there. Is that a sign of mites?

 

[Eggcessive]

I have noticed my roosters normally having more red around their vents. You can part the feathers under his vent and belly to look for tiny bugs moving. Mites or lice are usually treated with permethrin garden dust or the permethrin horse spray at feed stores. Feather mites are more rare, and the feathers have a moth eaten appearance. Here is an article that has pictures of what to look for:
https://the-chicken-chick.com/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification/

 

[sorenheart]

I have noticed my roosters normally having more red around their vents. You can part the feathers under his vent and belly to look for tiny bugs moving. Mites or lice are usually treated with permethrin garden dust or the permethrin horse spray at feed stores. Feather mites are more rare, and the feathers have a moth eaten appearance. Here is an article that has pictures of what to look for:
https://the-chicken-chick.com/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification/

So I checked my rooster again recently and didn’t notice any tiny bugs moving (I did this late at night and also checked beneath the roosting bar), but it seems that he IS losing feathers as I’ve been finding a few here and there on the floor of the coop. Could he be molting? One of my hens is also losing feathers, but I haven’t noticed anything on her either. I picked her up the other day, and when I put her back down, two of her feathers flew right out of my hand. I examined the area where she’s been losing them (the sides of her neck) and didn’t see anything abnormal-looking. The skin appears healthy and not red or irritated. I have noticed, however, that a few of the feathers both she and my rooster have lost appear to be broken in some way. I’ll attach a picture as an example. Neither of these chickens have visible bald spots, by the way. I only noticed where my hen is losing feathers because she doesn’t appear as full there.

 

[Eggcessive]

It is the time of year for many chickens to molt. What is his exact age? Do you have a picture of him? When chickens molt, it is common to see feathers in the coop, run, and yard. They molt around 16-18 months the first time, and yearly thereafter.

 

[sorenheart]

It is the time of year for many chickens to molt. What is his exact age? Do you have a picture of him? When chickens molt, it is common to see feathers in the coop, run, and yard. They molt around 16-18 months the first time, and yearly thereafter.

He is a year and seven months, but my hen is only thirteen months. Picture isn’t the best, but I just took it, so it shows exactly what he looks like right now.

 

[sorenheart]

It is the time of year for many chickens to molt. What is his exact age? Do you have a picture of him? When chickens molt, it is common to see feathers in the coop, run, and yard. They molt around 16-18 months the first time, and yearly thereafter.

Are the broken feathers something I should worry about?