feather loss

[chickenmommy23]

i have a rooster who is loosing his feathers on his chest rapidly i am very worried. he is in with two hens. only he is loosing them the feathers are not being pulled out because i am not seeing any on the floor of the coop. I am puzzled by not seeing the lost feathers laying around. He has a red spot the size of a nickle or smaller on his chest where they are missing but not the entire area that missing just this small spot. Keep in mind he is the only one doing this what could be causing this?

 

[PoultryGirly]

I am almost positive that your rooster has mites/lice. I would check all over his body for any moving bugs on him. It might help us too if you post a picture of the feather loss.

 

[chickenmommy23]

will post pics tomorrow but there are no mites or lice he is in a flock of 25 chickens and no other one has this. My first thought went to that possability but i have checked him head to toe and nothing i can see

 

[dawg53]

The two hens are picking and eating his feathers, that's why you dont see any feathers laying around. It sounds like they are lacking protein. Provide them gamebird feed for a couple of weeks.

 

[chickenmommy23]

thank you i actually caught a hen doing it today right before dusk while they was perched this evening thank you so much for the info i will do

 

[kanokopuckbo]

I have like the exact same problem!!!!

 

[PoultryGirly]

I'm glad you found out what was wrong! I also agree that upping their protein intake will help with this problem. You could also hard-boil some eggs for chickens for protein and feed them live mealworms (they could be dead, but chickens like "chasing" around the live ones). If none of this works (which I'm sure it will), you could get this to put on your rooster: http://www.hensaver.com/Crop-Bra.html