Featherless Bottom

[steveonCapeCod]

(Sorry if this is already online. I tried to search BYC for this but could not find anything.)

I have 3 Buff Orphingtons in my flock. One in particular has no feathers on her rump area.

One of her sisters was broody and my daughter was taking care of the girls for a couple of days. She kept pulling "Ms. Broody" out the nesting box and when I got home, it looked like Broody was "fixed". But, I got greeted with "One of your chickens is missing all her feathers on her bottom" (a large patch between the keel and the rump). (This was not my "Ms Broody", but one of her sisters.)

At the same time (and things are never simple), I had asked my neighbor to save me a clutch of fertilized eggs. (I was gonna try to put Ms Broody's broodiness to work to enlarge the flock.) Since I had the eggs, I put the eggs in the favorite egg laying box. No one seems to want to own this clutch for the next 21 days.

I have a couple of questions:
Has anyone seen a large featherless patch on the bottom?
Does anyone have a suggestion as to the maximum amount of time I should leave the eggs before giving up on them "being adopted"? (I traded 5 unfertilized for 5 fertilized so it won't be a big deal if I have to eat those eggs.)
Could the bare-bottomed bird have done that to herself as part of going into broody?
If she didn't do this to herself, what could have caused this? (She is not being bothered by her coop-mates.)

Note: other than the bare spot the chicken is acting fine and looks great (the bold spot is not visible till the bird is turned over) and, I believe, she is still laying - she's almost 2 years old.

Thanks,
steve

 

[ChickenGirl555]

If it looks how I think it does (please show us a picture) the others may just be bullying them. Bored or looking for more protein.

 

[Chickassan]

They do pluck themselves in that area when they go or sometimes even think about going broody. I have also found broodiness to be contagious, one goes then the rest catch the fever. Give the eggs a good week before giving up after that the fertility drops off but you still might get a hatcher it has happened.

 

[Matt119911]

Yeah they might be being bullied by the big hen of the coop

 

[steveonCapeCod]

I want to thank all who added a comment and give an update:

The Buff died a couple of days ago. We noticed that she was very lethargic and her comb went very pale.

My daughter did a necropsy on her and found that she had a massive cyst (about the size of a baseball) it was filled with liquid. (My daughter's guess was that it was probably an ovarian cyst.) Her other observations were that there were a number of tumors and that her organs were under a lot of pressure (including her heart which might have accounted for the paleness).

The cyst was right where the feathers were missing. My daughter theorized that the cyst was causing some discomfort and the Buff was plucking the feathers to try to relieve some of the discomfort.

steve

 

[aart]

Sorry for your loss Steve.

Big Kudos for doing the necrospy,
that really is about the only way to know what happened in there.
Conclusions on feather plucking and paleness sound right on.

I don't suppose she had anyone take pics during the dissection?
Some of us here are pretty well versed in anatomy and it's always interesting to see and learn more.