Feathers EVERYWHERE!!!

[TikiRoost6]

I have 7 birds in my coop & I keep finding my BA & PR's feathers everywhere. When I let them out in the morning they seem to get excited & run around & sometimes will flap their wings. I have never witnessed any fights & there is always someone home, & they are very protected so I can't imagine anything is getting in there. I'm just not sure if this is normal feather "shedding" or if they're missing something in their diet or parasites of some sort? I inspect each of my birds daily & haven't noticed anything obvious. Any suggestions welcome...

 

[Poultry parent]

How old are they?

 

[azygous]

You're in the northern hemisphere so it would normally be too early for molt, but it still is a possibility. To determine if it's molt, look the birds over carefully and if you see tight groups of pin feathers emerging, it's probably molt.

Look at the skin closely around the vent area. Look really close! Lice are the size of the period at the end of this sentence, reddish and they move. There may also be eggs, appearing as cement along the feather shafts around the vent area. These would be the nits, and you will know for certain you're dealing with lice.

The other common cause of feather loss is picking. The perpetrator can be sneaky. You need to hang around and watch for a while. Usually, it's a single culprit. If you find this is the cause of the feather storm, I find pinless peepers very effective to curtail the behavior.