Hen with NO tail feathers??

[12kids&manychicks]

I got a new roo and 2 hens yesterday for free off craigslist. They look like a trio of Mille Fleur D'Uccle. Anyway - after I got them home, I realized that one of the hens has NO tailfeathers - as in NONE!!! The girl I got them from was not very informative, but thought they were a year old. She says " they don't lay everyday, but then, they laid 13 eggs in one day" ????? She also said only one hen lays because tht is the only one that always is on the nest.
I was wondering if the one hen was broody and pulled her tail feathers and was sitting on the 13 eggs??
Anyone??

 

[Backyard_Chicken_rancher]

it could have been aBroody but to pull tail feathers never heard of that one I think it may have been plucked for other reasons I would serch it over for bugs or other reasons because tail feathers just don't get plucked for no reason..

Maybe someone else can help with this little problem Good luck to you

 

[Germaine_11.20]

I have a chicken too that has no tail feathers! Strange looking hen. She looks like a cross between a BCMarans and an Aracuna (?) sorry don't know how to spell that one.

 

[12kids&manychicks]

You can see that she is supposed to have feathers, but they are pulled out and she is bare - the girl I got them from said she thinks the other chickens pulled them??? ok, why??

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

She may be in molt. Chickens go through a molt at least once a year in which they replace their feathers with new ones.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

I wonder if when the girl caught them for you (or if they had been running loose/got loose recently), if she possibly grab the hen by the tail and pulled the feathers out.

 

[Akane]

Sounds like they got grabbed by something. The only time I've seen a completely bald tail was when a dog grabbed my roo by the tail. A human trying to catch them could do it too. Chickens don't normally pull out only tail feathers for any reason. Other feathers would be missing first.

 

[emys]

She could have been housed with a bunch of larger feather plucking chickens (probably were deficient in protein at some point - even after diet is changed some will continue to feather pluck all new feathers coming in.)

May also have mites or lice as someone else said already.

(Maybe not even larger - just faster)

 

[acid_chipmunk]

My EE hen only had two tail feathers. Half of them got pulled by hubby when he was trying to catch her. It was an accident. The other half we from feather pickers. We got rid of the pickers and got them on high protein food (Flock Raiser) and now her feathers are FINALLY growing back. Poor thing, she looks so funny. It doesn't seem to bother her though.

I would put her on a high protein feed, as they need lots of protein to grow new feathers.

 

[kano]

The lack of tail is a caracteristic of some races. Araucana, for instance.