Hen baldness getting worse

[jeichacker]

I am new to BYC and have had chickens for a year and 4 months. They sleep in a 6 ft x 8 ft chicken coop (5 ft tall) at night and range free all day. I have attached pictures of one of my hens., named Dolly. She lost almost all of her back feathers over the winter. It seemed to start with molting, then we thought she was the favorite hen of our rooster. Then some new chicks ended up to be more roosters so I have removed all but one rooster. I have feed her Feather Fixer for months along with her regular chicken pellets. She is an excellent egg layer. Today she spend most of the day in a nesting box. Finally I picked her up and realized she has hardly any feathers under her wings or on her belly and some of the feathers look like then have been cut off. She has no injuries and I cannot see any bugs on her. The parts of the feather that remain looks like they are clumped together. I have not seen her being picked on. She is mated daily. She is now in the house in a cage alone. I have a total of 17 chickens of various breeds: 12 of them are about 4 months old (1 may be a rooster), the other 5 are a year and 4 months old (4 hens & 1 rooster).

Any ideas?

 

[jeichacker]

Dolly's bare back

Dolly's bare belly

View of Dolly's bare right side under her wing. Notice the clump of gray looking feathers at the bottom of the bare spot.

 

[GitaBooks]

Welcome to BYC!

Wow. That is bad. That would be one serious rooster to go all the way up the shoulders like that.

Here are some suggestions:
Your hen could have mites
Your hen could be molting
Your hen could be being over-bred by the rooster (missing feathers on the back and tops of wings)
Feather's missing under the belly can be a sign of going broody.


Hope everything works out!

 

[aart]

I am new to BYC and have had chickens for a year and 4 months. They sleep in a 6 ft x 8 ft chicken coop (5 ft tall) at night and range free all day. I have attached pictures of one of my hens., named Dolly. She lost almost all of her back feathers over the winter. It seemed to start with molting, then we thought she was the favorite hen of our rooster. Then some new chicks ended up to be more roosters so I have removed all but one rooster. I have feed her Feather Fixer for months along with her regular chicken pellets. She is an excellent egg layer. Today she spend most of the day in a nesting box. Finally I picked her up and realized she has hardly any feathers under her wings or on her belly and some of the feathers look like then have been cut off. She has no injuries and I cannot see any bugs on her. The parts of the feather that remain looks like they are clumped together. I have not seen her being picked on. She is mated daily. She is now in the house in a cage alone. I have a total of 17 chickens of various breeds: 12 of them are about 4 months old (1 may be a rooster), the other 5 are a year and 4 months old (4 hens & 1 rooster).

Any ideas?

This probably indicates 'picking' by other birds.
The feathers won't grow back when cut off like that until she goes thru a real molt at around 18 months old.

4 to 1 can result in over mating(physical damage) and stress(poor overall health).

6x8 coop is fine for 5, but way too small for 17, even if they are 'only sleeping' in it.....not helping the situation.

 

[GretaGarboFirst]

Just a suggestion. I think if you post your problem and pictures under the "emergency' forum you could get lots of help. She sure could use the help sooner rather than later. Best of Luck.