Help!

[clkabj5]

Most of my chickens look like this...

I found this picture in the internet because my hens are all out free ranging. We have 14 hens and 2 roosters. All hens have varying feather loss except a few. What do I do? We have checked for bugs, cleaned coop, sprayed coop and dipped chickens.

 

[jmmeye4]

There are more experience members on here that will be able to answer better. Here is my 2 cents

One of my hens looked like that a while back. I had 6 hens and a rooster. Added more hens and this issue went away. Looks like the hens are worn out from your roosters mounting. Normally you want about 9 hens to a single rooster or he will beat them up.

Another possibility is the area is too small and they are pecking because of boredom, lost one this way. Increased the area went out and bought a cheap bag of juicing carrots (25lbs) $8 throw a few in and watch the excitement. Without a picture and up close picture it is hard to tell which one.

As far as their bare backs I would put some chicken safe skin ointment on them and separate the roosters from the flock for a while, a week or more, to see how they do. One rooster with that flock size is more than enough. All eggs may not be fertilized but enough should be. Also providing more hens to roosters tends to lead to a happier hen that will lay more eggs.

 

[clkabj5]

Thank you! I am not sure size of coop is the issue. My husband lets them out every morning and they are allowed to roam our 40 acres at will. Our coop is 8ft by 16 ft. Our roosters are going to meet the freezer in about 1 week. We have 8 chicks about 5 weeks old that I haven't out in with the flock, and 11 more chicks that are just a week old so they are in a coop alone as well.

 

[donrae]

Your hens are being overmated. Getting rid of the roosters and boosting protein will take care of the feathers.

 

[clkabj5]

Thank you both and yes roosters are going to freezer within a week so maybe we will just move that up a little.

 

[Gayleyy]

Yep that looks like the Roo has been having a bit too much fun! LOL If you are going to keep a Roo, they recommend 12 hens for him. You can also purchase saddles for the hens.

 

[Blammmo]

Mine will start to look like that when they are molting, occasionally one of my Roos will have a favorite and loose some feathers, but if they were overmated you'd be seeing it happen constantly, my guess is molting