Henpecked? Molting? Both?

[MotherHenInMass]

One of my sex links has one tail feather left and a significant bald spot on her right "hip" and another bald spot on the back of her neck. The hip area looks a bit wounded but I don't see raw, open wounds or fresh blood. I have 6 hens that I bought as chicks last April. How concerned should I be? This is my first time having chickens or any sort of farm animal - I grew up in NYC with no pets at all. So I'm pretty green here. I'm wondering if this is at the emergency stage or if I have time. What do I need to do?

The rest of the hens look terrific, fully feathered, etc.

Thanks in advance!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Check her closely for mites. Seeing none I'd reconsider what I was feeding. They can but rarely molt this time of year. Feather eating can result from a need for protein.
Do you give lots of treats and scratch grains?

 

[MotherHenInMass]

Thanks Chicken Canoe! I feed them their layer pellets and then these days it's just bugs they scrounge when they are free ranging. I give them scraps from cooking. We are vegetarian so they don't get meat scraps. In the winter I was giving them freeze dried meal worms. Should I add these back in? Also, what do mites look like? How would I know if she has them?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Try some yogurt, cottage cheese, canned tuna, scrambled eggs.
Even though most poultry feed brags about being all vegetarian, chickens aren't vegetarian. They're omnivores and benefit greatly from animal protein.

 

[MotherHenInMass]

Gotcha - and thanks for the advice. No worries, we aren't trying to make our chickens be vegetarian. We have two cats and a dog and wouldn't subject them to that. Just the humans.