Hen with missing feathers????

[Chick1043]

My Dark Brahma hen ( 10 months old) has been broody. I have been trying to break her from it. I have noticed when I pick her up she is missing her stomach feathers. My brother has parakeets and said somtimes birds will pluck out their feathers because new ones are growing in and are itchy? For now I'll separate her from the other birds..She doesn't have any mites....Any suggestions? I don't know what going on with her feathers!! :/

Forgot to mention - When I went outside to check on the girls, she was in the hen house. When I picked her up out of the hen house she had dry yolk where her chest, where the feathers are missing. Where she was sitting there was no yolk, whites, egg shell.....Totally confused!!! I looked around the hen house and every where they were last night and this morning and I can't find anything!!! Any ideas of what that could be? Thanks!

 

[MuscovyMad]

I'm not sure about the dry yolk bit. But missing stomach feathers is something the hens do to themselves as a way of keeping their eggs as warm as possible.

As naked skin contacting the eggs is much better for heating them and they will remain consistently at the same temperature. If the feathers were left in place then the heat would be kept between the hens feathers and her skin and would not get through to the eggs.

The feathers will grow back in once she has finished her broodiness.

 

[Chick1043]

Thanks!! That makes a lot of sense!!!