Hen being pecked?

[LoveHuevos]

My hen is losing more and more of her feathers. At first I thought she was being pecked but there's no blood or scabs. It's mainly on her back and she's losing more. She's eating, drinking and laying eggs. She's almost a year old and we got them as chick's, all at the same time.
What do I do?
Is there medicine?

 

[ginormous chicken]

Is there a rooster that is constantly mounting her? Or is she plucking or is someone else plucking?

I would try a hen apron. Some BYCer's have had luck with pine tar. I don't know much about that. I do know you want to discourage the picking any way possible. She won't grow new ones if she keeps either picks them out or is getting them picked out. Some birds will just do that to themselves as an obsession. I would try the hen apron.

 

[LoveHuevos]

No, we don't have a rooster. I'm not sure who's doing the plucking, I've never seen it happen. I've seen the aprons but I've never heard about the pine tar.

 

[LoveHuevos]

Anyone else? I just took pictures today. I can try to post them tomorrow if it'll help.

 

[tammye]

check her for mites/lice, if none are seen I would bet someone is plucking out her feathers. I have had this same problem, at first did not see anyone doing the plucking, then one day I saw the plucker. Causes can be due to protein def., boredom, you can try to give them something to do if they are being cooped up due to winter, try a bail of hay for them to kick around, whole heads of cabbage, pecker reckers, separate the plucker once you find out who it is for a few days, or you can put pinless peepers on the plucker-stops them from being able to see the feathers when they go in to get one. If you ever see any blood, even a dot it needs to be cleaned up, chickens will go after red and could kill a chicken by pecking her to death.

 

[LoveHuevos]

Here are some photos:

We don't live in a big city that carries a lot of products. So I'm thinking that removing the plucker would be best. How long would I remove her? I'm not even sure which one it is.
I just called the feed store and she said they have a product called "Pick no more" Anyone heard of that?
Thanks.

 

[easttxchick]

That looks like molting to me.
If you don't think that's what it is, I'd treat for lice/mites(Sevin dust).

 

[ske1806]

One of my Welsummers has the same spot right there on her lower back. I thought it was molting -- she's the only one with such an extreme bald spot. How do I check for mites, etc?

 

[Judy]

About lice and mites:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=425486

http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

It really looks like rooster damage, but I know, you don't have a roo. You could, however, have a hen who acts like a roo. Sometimes this happens in an all hen flock. The "roo hen" will mount hens as if she were mating. It could be molting, a partial molt sometimes occurs around this age, but I don't see any sign of new feathers growing in. Or it could be feather picking. What happens with this so often, I think, is people give so much treats or scratch, trying to be kind, that they end up decreasing the protein intake below where it needs to be. Feathers have a lot of protein and I think usually feather eating is due to a need for more.

Lice and mites can happen just from wild birds flying over; it would probably be a good idea to dust both the chickens and the coop. It would probably also be a good idea to just sit and watch them for a while, see if you see anyone pulling feathers, etc.