Huge lump on my chickens neck, help

[Shellbchickmom]

I have one hen who not only lost most of her feathers and not sure why but now has a lump by her throat. She is only 18 weeks and this is my first flock of chickens. I don't have a way of separating her and not a lot of money to spend on something either. I noticed the lump earlier this week while checking on them before they went in the coop for the night. The next morning the lump seemed to be gone but came back later on the day. It's like it comes and goes and I have no clue what it could be. I have a total of eleven hens and she is the only one who lost features and has this lump. She seems to eat and drink just fine as well. Any help I could get would be great.

 

[Pyxis]

Goodness that's a bad molt! Take some pictures so you can enter her in the worst molt contest this year. I'd get her on a high protein feed to help her grow all those back in.

That lump in her throat is a full crop. Totally normal and all birds have that. You just usually don't see it because it's covered by feathers. It'll go down over the course of the day as the food empties out.

Edit: After rereading I caught that she's only 18 weeks old. That's really young for a molt like that. It's quite possible the others are picking her bald. How much space do they all have and how much protein is in their feed? You might try splitting her away from the rest of the flock for awhile to see if the feathers start to come back in, even if it's only in a dog crate that they can't reach into to get at her.

 

[Shellbchickmom]

The coop is a 4 ft by 8ft and has one run so far. Is there something specific for protein that should feed her? The feathers seem to be growing back but slowly.

 

[Pyxis]

The coop is too small for eleven hens - you really need at least four square feet of space per bird, so your coop is sized for eight birds and not eleven. How big is the run? The run needs to be at least ten square feet per bird, so in your case at least 110 square feet, especially with your coop not being big enough. When they don't have enough space they can start to pick on each other, and the lowest one on the totem pole can end up in really rough shape.

They will also eat each other's feathers if their feed isn't high enough in protein, which is why I asked how much protein is in the feed you're feeding them.

As for extra protein for her, scrambled egg works well, along with just putting her on a higher protein feed in general like chick starter.

 

[Shellbchickmom]

The coop I got off from a friend who no longer was raising chickens and she had eleven so I figured it would work. Now I feel bad cause I didn't know. I'll make sure to find a way to get her separated and put on a higher protein diet to help her feathers come back. Plus I guess I need a bigger run the first one I did probably is to small as well. Guess lesson learned the hard way

 

[Pyxis]

The coop I got off from a friend who no longer was raising chickens and she had eleven so I figured it would work. Now I feel bad cause I didn't know. I'll make sure to find a way to get her separated and put on a higher protein diet to help her feathers come back. Plus I guess I need a bigger run the first one I did probably is to small as well. Guess lesson learned the hard way

Don't feel bad, you didn't know and you got a coop from someone who had chickens so it's easy to see how you would think eleven would be okay. Sounds like you're going to fix the problem so all will be well

 

[Shellbchickmom]

Thank you for the advice it has helped a lot!