Do we have a feather plucker among us???

Excellent photos. Good write up. Believe me, it's a welcome change from having to drag information out of people posting with a problem. Thank you.

You likely have a feather picker, as @MysteryChicken has suggested. The pattern of baldness and emerging pin feathers indicates to me that pin feathers are being liberated as soon as they pop out.

But what concerns me as much is the condition of his feathers. For just eight months old, they are as stripped of quality as if he were already old enough for first adult molt. It makes me wonder if he might have feather mites. I would give him a few dustings of permethrin powder. You might check the others for this same threadbare condition and dust them also.

He appears to be the hens' favorite. You can catch them in the act of munching his neck feathers while they loaf or dirt bathe. Watch which hens cozy up to him and nuzzle his neck. Those will be your culprits that are yanking his pin feathers.

So, to sum up, I believe you have a two-fold issue. Possible feather mites and pickers that are after his blood rich pin feathers. The first is easy to treat, but the second is almost never possible to resolve effectively. Believe me, I've been trying to come up with a solution to feather picking for fourteen years.
 
Excellent photos. Good write up. Believe me, it's a welcome change from having to drag information out of people posting with a problem. Thank you.

You likely have a feather picker, as @MysteryChicken has suggested. The pattern of baldness and emerging pin feathers indicates to me that pin feathers are being liberated as soon as they pop out.

But what concerns me as much is the condition of his feathers. For just eight months old, they are as stripped of quality as if he were already old enough for first adult molt. It makes me wonder if he might have feather mites. I would give him a few dustings of permethrin powder. You might check the others for this same threadbare condition and dust them also.

He appears to be the hens' favorite. You can catch them in the act of munching his neck feathers while they loaf or dirt bathe. Watch which hens cozy up to him and nuzzle his neck. Those will be your culprits that are yanking his pin feathers.

So, to sum up, I believe you have a two-fold issue. Possible feather mites and pickers that are after his blood rich pin feathers. The first is easy to treat, but the second is almost never possible to resolve effectively. Believe me, I've been trying to come up with a solution to feather picking for fourteen years.
Thanks! I have searched him over and over and over for mites and don't see anything. I'll dust him just in case.
 
Ok, good to know. I was misinformed. Thanks for your help!
You're welcome.

As you can see, a chickens nostril is just an empty space, no membrane, or thin bone seperation.
20211002_090500.jpg
 
You won't be able to detect feather (depluming) mites as they are too small and they burrow into the feather shafts out of sight. https://poultrykeeper.com/external-problems/depluming-mites/

It's possible that the feather pickers are being encouraged by the depluming mites. The cure is Ivermectin to get deep into the skin and feathers where the mites are flourishing. Treatment may eventually solve the picking issue. I am not familiar with Ivermectin dosing. Others such as @casportpony would be better able to advise.

I have found that the only way to stop the hens depredation on rooster neck feathers is to separate them, keeping the roosters mostly segregated from the hens, especially during the peak hours in the afternoon when socializing is most prevalent and at roosting time when they are in close proximity. I have a separate coop for my roosters precisely for this reason. When I let my hens out to join the roosters in free ranging, it's mostly during peak activity, not periods when they are loafing (resting).
 

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