Help! Loss of feathers

[Lachoisa]

Hello! Please help! My 11 year olds chickens are only 7 months old and started laying about a month now. Within the last few days one of our girls has lost a ton of feathers. I can’t tell if she is pecking herself or someone else is. (No roosters) on Thursday it was one spot now its 3 spots and getting bigger. I don’t see bugs on her and no one else has spots. Today she was a little slower than hers usual self but still eating and foraging fine. Any ideas or advice greatly appreciated

 

[mountainbunny]

It's a little late for molting and those patches don't look like molting. If it's not mites or some other parasite maybe the other girls are picking on her. Sorry can't be of more help. We just got finished going through our hens 1st molt so i clicked on your post out of curiosity.

 

[Chickassan]

Its never too late for molting, especially not this year molting had been all over the place "got a dominique molting now" lol! But that doesn't look like molting or mites it looks like picking. How are your son's chickens housed, do they get foraging time? Also what do you feed them? Protein and calcium intake has to be increased once they start to lay or they'll eat feathers to compensate.

 

[sylviethecochin]

This is probably going to sound like a totally random question, but what are you feeding your girls? If they're not getting enough protein or calcium, they might be eating each others' feathers as a supplement

Another cause of feather-picking is too little room in coop and/or run. Every hen should have 2-4 square feet minimum in the coop, and 10 or more in the run.

 

[Lachoisa]

This is probably going to sound like a totally random question, but what are you feeding your girls? If they're not getting enough protein or calcium, they might be eating each others' feathers as a supplement

Another cause of feather-picking is too little room in coop and/or run. Every hen should have 2-4 square feet minimum in the coop, and 10 or more in the run.

This is probably going to sound like a totally random question, but what are you feeding your girls? If they're not getting enough protein or calcium, they might be eating each others' feathers as a supplement

Another cause of feather-picking is too little room in coop and/or run. Every hen should have 2-4 square feet minimum in the coop, and 10 or more in the run.

Thank you for helping...
We feed them Nature Wise Layer feed? And mealworms for treats, kitchen veggies and bread/crackers etc. They do get about 2-3 hours of foraging time on most days...we have a 2 hawks that like to fly around so we only do when we can keep a good eye on them. Their run is 16x4 and coop 4x4.

What can I do to get the pecking to stop? If someone else is doing it would she be the only one attacked?

 

[Lachoisa]

Its never too late for molting, especially not this year molting had been all over the place "got a dominique molting now" lol! But that doesn't look like molting or mites it looks like picking. How are your son's chickens housed, do they get foraging time? Also what do you feed them? Protein and calcium intake has to be increased once they start to lay or they'll eat feathers to compensate.

Hi! Thanks for helping us out! They have a coop that is 4X4 and a run that’s 16x4 and they do get to forage usually 2-3 hours a day on most days. If someone can keep an eye on them bc of some hawks that like to circle us. We feed them nature wise layer feed. Some worms and kitchen veggies and breads, etc.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Your coop may be a bit too small. 16 ft is the BYC minimum for four hens. If she's being pecked, then she might just be the low girl on the pecking order.

I would stop with the bread and crackers--they love it, but it has no nutritional value.

 

[Lachoisa]

Your coop may be a bit too small. 16 ft is the BYC minimum for four hens. If she's being pecked, then she might just be the low girl on the pecking order.

I would stop with the bread and crackers--they love it, but it has no nutritional value.

My husband and I were discussing that today and we are going to try and build an addition to the run this weekend. But not sure how we will fix the coop as of right now. It’s an old playhouse we converted. We will stop with the bread! Yep they love it!

Any other advice? Will she get sicker between now and then?

 

[sylviethecochin]

My husband and I were discussing that today and we are going to try and build an addition to the run this weekend. But not sure how we will fix the coop as of right now. It’s an old playhouse we converted. We will stop with the bread! Yep they love it!

Any other advice? Will she get sicker between now and then?

She's not exactly sick. You might put some nasty-tasting stuff on her feathers. (there are anti-peck sprays and oils. Try Amazon or a feed store if you decide to do that.)

 

[Chickassan]

You could try putting a little partition up to separate her at night, could be as simple as a piece of cardboard just enough so she can roost but the others can't see her. She's pretty bald in those spots so I'm thinking they're pecking at bedtime before its completely dark or in the morning before you let them out. I see you have windows on your coop as well, you could also try covering those. Chickens can't see in darkness, they won't peck what they can't see.