I am a new chicken owner, not sure what to do?

[sandmama]

Our chickens are 6.5 months old. We have 7 hens.

A few weeks ago I noticed our Aracauna had some of her tail feathers at the base by her back were grey on the bottoms and some were missing. About a week ago I noticed an actual bare spot.

A few days ago I noticed 2 reds that have the same spot on them with missing feathers.

I was hoping they were molting, but today one of the reds has a patch at least 1x1 inch that is just bare and bloody and when I checked the Aracauna closer hers is red and looks raw.

Our two buff orpingtons are just fine.

Do I need to call a vet?

Thanks for any help

 

[Picklestix7866]

Check to see if they have mites or something. Just move aside a few feathers and see if there are any little bugs crawling around.

 

[lisahaschickens]

I am new to chickens as well, but I have been doing a lot of research and it sounds like they could possibly be picking each other. Are the ones with the bare spots low in the pecking order? If so, you might want to hanging a cabbage or something in their coop/run in order to give them something to play with so they leave each other alone.

I am only guessing here. Hopefully others can give you better info than I can!

 

[Chirpy]

Hi and Welcome to BYC!

So, you do not have a rooster? It sounds like they are feather pecking at each other. The biggest reason for that is they are in too small of a space and are crowded. However, you can have tons of space (even free ranging) and can still have feather pecking going on. Chickens most certainly have a pecking order and enforce it daily; it just doesn't usually end up with missing feathers.

You can try putting something like blue coat on those spots. If they start to bleed you may have a real problem as blood tends to draw the other chickens attention and they get worse with the pecking. Sometimes you have to separate a chicken that is bad so she isn't killed by the other chickens. Just separate until healed.

 

[NurseNettie]

Quote:
Do you only have hens, or is there a rooster among the bunch as well?? If you've got a rooster, it could be feather loss due to mating.

 

[sandmama]

I have looked and I don't see any mites or bugs. When my husband just called and I told him, he is wondering if one of the bigger buffs are picking on them.

Thanks for the cabbage idea. I think I will seperate the buffs when I put them away tonight and see how that goes.

I take any more ideas too!

Thanks

 

[sandmama]

No roosters. Last month we started hearing one early in the morning and figured out who it was and found him a new home.

We could easily see he was the dominate one so now I am wondering who else could it be!

 

[sandmama]

Blue coat...is that an antibiotic? I will head down to the farm store tonight and see if I can get some. Thanks!