Fairly severe treading and am concerned about regrowth.

[OatmealGhost]

Hey there. So I'll leave out most of the context unless asked but I'll say that it is my first year raising chickens and due to have too many roosters (9 Roosters to 30 hens), my hens got beat up fairly severely. Nothing too aggressive but it was far too much attention and the treading got really bad. And unfortunately this happened during the winter worst of all.

But anyway, I am almost certain that the only issue was the treading but the problem is that they seem to be having trouble growing their feathers back? I've removed most of the roosters entirely and just recently separated the ones I have left. But I. Not seeing the progress that I'd like...I am giving them a higher protein feed and pecking between the hens does not seem to be bad at all. Behavior seems to be completely fine. Poop seems normal most of the time. Egg laying is fine. Their butts are fluffy. No signs of mites or fleas that I can see. Am I missing something? Am I just impatient? Is there something worse going on with them?

The two pictures are one of the worst examples of the treading and her current state along with the worst looking hen because I had two silkie roosters that couldn't do much else other than grab the hens necks.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I am almost certain that the only issue was the treading but the problem is that they seem to be having trouble growing their feathers back?

Welcome To BYC

Look closely at your photos. See all the broken feathers? See all the intact feather shafts in the skin? The feathers will regrow when your hens go through a molt.

You can put saddles on your girls to help protect their bare skin until this fall. For the neck, well, that's gonna happen sometimes. All you can do is monitor the skin to make sure it's not getting ripped and wait until molt.

Manage those roosters. If you need to, separate and house them in their own pens. If you want fertile eggs, just let a rooster in with the hens for a couple of hours each morning for few days, they will take it from there.

 

[OatmealGhost]

Welcome To BYC

Look closely at your photos. See all the broken feathers? See all the intact feather shafts in the skin? The feathers will regrow when your hens go through a molt.

You can put saddles on your girls to help protect their bare skin until this fall. For the neck, well, that's gonna happen sometimes. All you can do is monitor the skin to make sure it's not getting ripped and wait until molt.

Manage those roosters. If you need to, separate and house them in their own pens. If you want fertile eggs, just let a rooster in with the hens for a couple of hours each morning for few days, they will take it from there.

Thank you for the response. This was the answer I was afraid of. Having to wait until fall. I just recently started separating the roosters entirely so hopefully from now on the hens can have some peace for once. Definitely a rough couple months for them as they are all less than a year old still. Fortunately the hens were never bloodied. Just a whole lot more attention than they could handle and I've applied some anti peck ointment just in case. But thank you again. Sucks to know the truth but I'll do my best to make sure they are happy until they are all pretty again.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you for the response. This was the answer I was afraid of. Having to wait until fall. I just recently started separating the roosters entirely so hopefully from now on the hens can have some peace for once. Definitely a rough couple months for them as they are all less than a year old still. Fortunately the hens were never bloodied. Just a whole lot more attention than they could handle and I've applied some anti peck ointment just in case. But thank you again. Sucks to know the truth but I'll do my best to make sure they are happy until they are all pretty again.

Oh Cockerels especially can be quite rough on the pullets.
I've been there and had the bare backed gals too. I think it bothered me more than them.
Feathers will regrow at molt and they will look pretty again, no worries.
Even if you only had one rooster in with them, you'd see some feather loss/damage and possibly some bare places on the back of the head from mating, it's pretty much unavoidable, but several roosters can be quite stressful, so giving the girls a bit of break is a good idea.