Sorry for the late reply. She was place in broody prison (a 4x10 chicken tractor with good visibility on most sides, built in water and food dispensors, decent shade and a sheltered end for protection from most storms) for one week to break the broody. I dosed her with ivermectin in case of mites... it seemed to loosen feathers as well. The loose feathers acted like slivers and irritated her skin but she refused to groom. At this point I realized her other flock mates had already had a molt or two and she had never done so based on the peck-no-more stains I had placed nearly 2 years ago. So I decided to stroke her and remove as many loose feathers as possible.....many fell out but she enjoyed the setting and she kept coming back. A week later I checked again, she was covered in pinfeathers eveywhere I had "plucked" and the skin where I had not was an angry red color and she was not walking comfortably. So I made the decision to pluck out the most scraggly looking feathers that looked like she had been trying to remove by holding back the skin at the base and pulling the feathers gently ....most came out without effort and she didnt make a sound but I kept supporting the skin at the base to be sure. A few of her flight feathers had something black at the base which didn't look healthy and seemed to be hollowing them out and letting the shaft crack so I removed them which wasn't pleasant but they came out with minimal force and no bleeding....she is healthier without that. I waited another week to repeat since she can only take so much per sitting. Her tail feathers were addressed as well.
