Diagnose my hen!

[TheBushyFamilyFarm]

This is (we think) a black australorp hen, roughly 9 months old. She’s been laying since February. She’s always been sort of the bottom of the pecking order.

Last night I checked for eggs one last time after getting home later at night and she was sleeping in a nesting box, which is strange. She is also missing quite a few feathers. I do not see visible signs of mites and I do not see any open wounds.

Any ideas?

 

[TheBushyFamilyFarm]

Last night we applied some of the blue healing balm on the feather-less areas and it’s all gone this morning, so she got it off somehow. We haven’t noticed a decrease in eggs so we believe she is still laying. Her diet is Mile Four organic feed, daily grubs and greens we toss into the run, and she ate when I fed them this morning. There are 9 hens total in our flock, no roosters, and they have an enclosed, ventilated coop with 6 nesting boxes, plenty of room to roost and outside areas to roam, so they shouldn’t be overcrowded.