Is Blackie developing a BROODY PATCH?!

[K-12 Chickens]

Everytime I go to check under my naughty hen Blackie for eggs, there are lots of black downy feathers scattered under her! I've even noticed a small patch of bare skin on her underside. Also, when I reach under her, she makes a weird growly-clucky-angry sound and puffs up! So, is she broody and is she developing a broody patch?

Pic of scattered feathers:

 

[Den in Penn]

Sounds like it.

 

[K-12 Chickens]

* Update on Behavior *
​

After laying her egg in the garage(therefore kicking the cat out of his sleeping spot on a pile of blankets), Blackie returned to the nest box AGAIN and I shoved her out. Tonight she was in the nest box AGAIN, and I had to shove her out so she could roost. I'm occasionally seeing black downy feathers scattered around the yard.

 

[Den in Penn]

She laid in a second spot? She didn't stay with the new egg. I'll have to think some more on that.

 

[nurse_turtle]

Check her bum for lice. Look at the bases of the feathers around her vent for white clumps of lice eggs.

 

[StarLover21]

Could be mites...but it sounds like she's going broody...what breed is she?

 

[Kev]

sleeping IN the nestbox ON the eggs through the night and not wanting to get off during the day time either is a sign of broodiness. If she's spending most of the day off the eggs, she is not broody(yet). the puffing up and growling is very common in broody hens, but the problem is, so do many of (non broody)hens that are just about to lay or already laid an egg but haven't left the nest yet. Normally, non broody hens don't sleep huddled over the eggs overnight. If the hen is perched on the lip, she's not brooding...

 

[K-12 Chickens]

Could be mites...but it sounds like she's going broody...what breed is she?

Blackie is a Black Star. None of the other hens are acting like this. I checked where Blackie is losing feathers for abnormalities and everything seems fine. Blackie is completely in the nest box when I go to shove her out. Last night before I closed the coop up, Blackie hopped out of the nest box. She visits the same one every time and bawks like crazy if another hen is in it.
Lately, Blackie had been wanting to sit on the nest box for more than two hours at a time.

 

[StarLover21]

Hmm...odd that she's a black star- broodiness has almost completally been bred out of them, but it does happen. I guess it depends on what cross she is. It does sound as if she preparing to go broody.

 

[K-12 Chickens]

Blackie has always been kind of broody, but she has gotten a little worse lately. The missing feathers and bare spot slowly developing has made me think more about her becoming broody. Blackie has at one time, hid seven eggs as she laid them on top of a straw bale.