Diseased Pin Feathers?

[flourishaustin]

Hi y'all!

I'm a novice small flock chicken-lady in Austin, TX. I have 5 different breeds that are all molting or recovering from molting at the moment. My brahma has me scratching my head though. She went through a hard molt at the end of September (almost 2 months ago) and grew back feathers nicely. However, now she seems to be going through a second molt, and has lost her crown feathers again. What's more concerning is that she is dropping pin-feathers from her wings that have a mysterious yellow casing around the shaft. The shafts also appear to be rotten (?!). I have no idea what to make of this. The other hens do not have this problem. I've inspected her and I can see the problem is in the tip of her wings, but her other feathers look totally normal and healthy.

Is this normal or is it disease? Vitamin deficiency? too much or too little protein? Is there anything I can/should do?

Thanks!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I suspect lice however the castings look to far down on the feather shaft. Could it be that she is just getting around to dropping these feathers?

 

[flourishaustin]

I suspect lice however the castings look to far down on the feather shaft. Could it be that she is just getting around to dropping these feathers?

It's quite possible these are old feathers... but that doesn't explain the way they look, does it?

 

[Countrey Girl]

Eww