Feathers are broken + missing

[Sandrachx]

one of my girls has been steadily losing her feathers over the past 2 weeks. we are not sure why she has been losing her feathers; we watched her with her 12 other sisters/aunts, and she is the only one in that condition - she also seems to be the only one the older girls torment (and she's not really a timid girl). after catching her and inspecting her we found she has many broken feathers and skin exposed, so yesterday we removed her from the flock and have her quarantined in the garage in a large dog crate with bedding and a small heat source (it's 8 degrees here!). any ideas of what could be wrong and how we might help her? her feed is formulated for pullet/layer diets, so i don't think it's necessarily a nutrition issue. any help/advise would be appreciated.

 

[silkiechicken]

Sounds like she is at the bottom of the pecking order and if you have a rooster, may be "over loved" by him. By any chance is she moulting too?

If she's moulting, getting a high protein layer supplement may help out in getting her feathers back, if she is over loved, a chicken saddle may help out.

 

[Sandrachx]

i'm not sure about her being a favorite of one of the roosters (father and brother). my husband thinks that she is the last of the young girls to molt (born this past summer) and that once she started molting, the others started picking on her. what the heck is a "chicken saddle"? is it o.k. to leave her alone for a few days (how many?). i'll look into the supplement for her feathers. will the supplement help her gain back the feathers that have been broken off and ripped from her?