How do I get my Hen to stop pulling her feathers out???

[Silkielover1104]

I have a hen who has started to pull her feathers out... I have 4 chickens, 3 hens, 1 young rooster. My oldest hen (2 yrs) has started pulling her feathers out.. She was broody for a while and was sitting on eggs but now she is more socialble with the other chickens but has started pulling her feathers out. There diet has not changed and they are getting fresh water everyday. With the snow, I snow blowed out a large area for them to come out of the pen but they don't like the snow on there feet so they have been staying in the pen with the door open during the day... How do I get my hen to stop pulling out her feathers????

 

[Judy]

One cause of this is lice/mites, which broodies are very prone to getting infested with. I would probably treat the flock and coop with Sevin, repeat in 10 days, if I could find any evidence. You may need a helper and an after dark search to find them. Be sure to check/treat the underside of the roosts. Sevin is convenient because you can use the dust on the birds and the liquid as a spray on the coop crevices and walls. Permethrin is also efffective.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ig140

http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8162.pdf

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/818674/are-these-some-kind-of-egg-clusters/0_20#post_11897957

If you are quite certain there are no external parasites present. I would increase the space they have (ma need to roof part of the run) and/or increase their protein intake, esp. animal sourced protein if possible.

 

[aart]

What exactly are you feeding them?

How much space in the coop and pen do they have(feet by feet)?

Pull them off the roost well after dark at night and examine their skin(spread the feathers apart down to the skin) and look for bugs around vent, under wings and on head/neck.