Hens losing back feathers and death follows! Help please.

[BYC AR]

I have it shipped from chewy. Worth a shot…

Can’t wait for the new food to get her. I feel awful I have been malnourishing them. When I thought I was giving them the best. Not to mention the cost of S&P. They should be ashamed. I am.

 

[MarlaMac]

I have it shipped from chewy. Worth a shot…

Can’t wait for the new food to get her. I feel awful I have been malnourishing them. When I thought I was giving them the best. Not to mention the cost of S&P. They should be ashamed. I am.

Everyone makes mistakes in chicken care - everyone! The good thing is that you noticed your chickens having a hard time and are open to the advice of the many on here (not me) that are experts in chicken care.

Chewy is pretty good about returns. It is where I get my feed too. They will probably tell you to keep the product and refund your money. You can then use that product as a treat (similar to scratch) or donate it to a local FAA or similar organization.

 

[Eggcessive]

Don’t beat yourself up. It is just a suggestion of mine that the scratch and peck feed may be a problem worth exploring. For some reason, many people have gone to using that, I guess because it looks really good with all of the sends and grains. But birds can be good at picking out the seeds they like best. Most commercial feeds for all animals contain additives to make the feed 100% right for that animal. I read feed labels, and those mixtures have to be exact or our animals can get a deficiency.

 

[FrostRanger]

Don’t beat yourself up. It is just a suggestion of mine that the scratch and peck feed may be a problem worth exploring. For some reason, many people have gone to using that, I guess because it looks really good with all of the sends and grains. But birds can be good at picking out the seeds they like best

I think they said that they were using scratch and peck's layer pellets, not their mash, so while I can't say that I'm impressed with scratch and peck's nutritional profile (too little protein) they weren't picking and choosing and getting only part of the nutrients the feed contained.

Regardless, I do think switching feeds doesn't hurt, if they were fine on their old feed it would perhaps at least rule that out

 

[Mara Sand]

My 1 year old hens have been losing back feathers, neck feathers, and belly feathers. We found one dead this morning when we opened up the coop. I treated for mites last week using elector psp. Even though I cannot see any mites. The feathers are all very scraggly. It’s not a molt. We do not have a rooster. The older hens do not seem to be affected. The poop looks normal. Eggs are being laid. They are fed a scratch and peck layer feed, have access to alfalfa, get grubs and soaked wheat, oats,field peas, corn, quinoa, boss, flax, sesame seeds as a treat. And clean water sometimes twice a day.

They look awful. And 3 have died so far. The other two were about 7 weeks ago.
I don’t want to lose any more. I am thinking of treating with Corrid. I am at a loss what could be causing this issue.

Sad.... It could be an infestation of Depluming Mites, that live inside the feathers shaft, so they are not visible. I'm dealing with those right now.

 

[Optimus Pollo]

I believe you! This is not a nutritional issue, molt or bullying! My story is nearly identical to yours! 22 birds effected, 4 died suddenly this year. They are on very high quality feed Feather Fixer and have separate oyster shell at all times. They free range 1/2 acre and have plenty of room on roosts and lay boxes. I have not observed any signs of picking or bullying. No signs of bugs but treated for feather (depluming) mites every 10 days for 4 treatments without effects lasting more than a month before starting again. I just treated with Elector PSP last night. There are other oddities of shell but no behavior changes. I've posted more to a different thread and linked here. I hope someone can help us figure it out before we lose more birds!

I have the same problem and have lost 4 hens so far this year. I'm at a total loss and need help too. I treated with Elector PSP yesterday after 4 rounds of Ivermectin Pour On didnt help longer than a month or 2. I have about 22 hens similarly effected but only showing 1 in the pictures. More details of my experience on this other thread. I pray we can all figure this out!

Thread 'Feather mites or something worse?' https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/feather-mites-or-something-worse.1643159/

 

[BGW]

And thank you all for taking time to help.

Did you find this to be chicken lice? Mine have the same thing and one hen is so sick and weak.