Hen bald on back, belly and butt, skin is red

[LorMo]

One of my hens has been missing her feathers on pretty much her whole back, butt and belly for at least a month. Her skin is red and irritated. I haven’t seen any mites on her. I picked her up to take a good look and the stress caused her to get a vent protrusion (you can see that in one of the photos) It went back to normal after a few minutes though.

In doing my own Internet search, there are of course many things it could be, which is overwhelming so thought I’d share some photos to get your thoughts.

 

[sourland]

My gut reaction is feather pecking/plucking by a flock mate. Are other birds missing feathers?

 

[Certified Chicken Lover]

Do you have a roster? How long has she been like this?

 

[LorMo]

We don’t have a Rooster, but we got her from a family farm that did. All the chickens had a patch of feathers missing from the back that I assumed was from the Rooster. The other ones have mostly grown back, but this one started to lose a lot more and it concerned me once the whole butt was bare and then the belly. It has been at least a month that she has been like this and her skin looks sore.

 

[Certified Chicken Lover]

One possibility is that she is beginning to molt. Another possibility though is bugs. Have you checked her for mites?? The red skin could be irritation to mites or because of the sun. What some people don’t know is that chickens can get sunburnt. I had a hen once who got a bald spot on her head from our roo and it started getting sunburnt so I applied chicken friendly sunscreen on it daily and it became normal again.