Hen plucked bald overnight!

[hatchie]

We have 7 hens and one Rooster in one flock. The rooster and one hen are silkies, the rest are regular sized.

Yesterday I noticed that one of our big hens had feathers missing from her tail, and this morning just one feather left (on the tail) and her back is plucked bald!!
My question is, could this be the rooster's doing or is another hen likely responsible? There have been changes, in that the flocks are free ranging during the day with another flock. However, this plucking happened overnight in her own coop with her usual coop-mates.

The hen in question is now in our living room, where she will be until she has enough feather cover to go into a little coop with a heater, and then she'll be merged with another flock and hen-house we have. Poor thing! She's 19 months old, the other hens in the coop she came from are either the same age or older. The rooster is the same age, as well.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

We have 7 hens and one Rooster in one flock. The rooster and one hen are silkies, the rest are regular sized.

Yesterday I noticed that one of our big hens had feathers missing from her tail, and this morning just one feather left (on the tail) and her back is plucked bald!!
My question is, could this be the rooster's doing or is another hen likely responsible? There have been changes, in that the flocks are free ranging during the day with another flock. However, this plucking happened overnight in her own coop with her usual coop-mates.

The hen in question is now in our living room, where she will be until she has enough feather cover to go into a little coop with a heater, and then she'll be merged with another flock and hen-house we have. Poor thing! She's 19 months old, the other hens in the coop she came from are either the same age or older. The rooster is the same age, as well.

Welcome To BYC!
Can you post some photos of the hen?

Did you find the feathers in the coop/under the roost this morning?
Is the skin broken from picking or do you see new pin feathers coming in?

At 19months of age, she may be molting - they can suddenly lose a lot of feathers overnight.
https://the-chicken-chick.com/molting-what-is-it-and-how-to-help/

 

[ValerieJ]

Pictures would help, but my guess is this is another/other hens and not the rooster. Although the rooster does create feather loss when mating, to lost all those feathers overnight doesn't indicate this is the cause.

What feed do you use? I wonder if they are craving more protein.

I had a pullet brutally attacked by a couple other pullets in my first flock and never did know why. They didn't do it to anyone else. Because I had a different pullet afraid of the cockerel at the time, we assumed it was him, and unfortunately he paid the ultimate price for it. That freed up the scared girl, but when my injured one was well enough to go back out, she was attacked again. I was watching and found out who was doing it. I actually had to give her a separate coop and run, with one of her friends to keep her company. Many months later I saw them all hanging together at the fence line regularly, so I tried integration and all was fine. So, sometimes it is just aggressive posturing and gets out of hand. I never did figure out why it happened.

 

[Lovemy chickens]

I also had this issue when I had polish tophats. I recommend, putting it either in like a bun to cover the bald spot if they havr any hairs or get rooster booster and put it over the bald.
Please help me with my current thread! I need help!

 

[hatchie]

Pictures of the hen. No broken skin, and they get 17% layer pellets, as well as whatever they gather freeranging. The feathers are under the perch.

 

[hatchie]

I don’t know why there are two of each picture uploaded!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Pictures of the hen. No broken skin, and they get 17% layer pellets, as well as whatever they gather freeranging. The feathers are under the perch.View attachment 1971913View attachment 1971915View attachment 1971913View attachment 1971915

Looks like she's molting to me. I would put her back with the flock.

 

[hatchie]

Looking closely, it appears there are a lot of new feathers pushing up...could this just be a radical molt? Either way, she needs to be indoors, as we have had freezing temperatures the past few days.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Looking closely, it appears there are a lot of new feathers pushing up...could this just be a radical molt? Either way, she needs to be indoors, as we have had freezing temperatures the past few days.

Not that radical of a molt.
I would leave her with the flock. I've had naked chickens in negative temps.
By keeping her inside she will have a hard time acclimating when it's time to put her back outside - likely sometime in January when it's even colder.

She will find a spot out of the wind inside the coop if she needs to. I do provide extra straw/bedding in the corners. Sometimes a molting bird may utilize that and hunker down when it's a particularly cold/windy day.

 

[hatchie]

Thank you very much! I'll take your advice.