Is it normal for a few hen's back feathers to be missing (w/ a roo)

[wordgirl]

I was out in the coop today and noticed that one of the BO girls is missing some (not all) of her feathers on her back. I'm guessing this is from our roo being a little too rough? Is this okay, or should I be trying to protect her? I don't *think* there were any scratches – well, none, at least, that were bleeding. Our girls are horrible at leaving cuts alone

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She only the one hen who's missing a substantial amount of feathers, and even she doesn't look awful. There was one other hen that I realized a couple of weeks ago was missing feathers on her neck, but she was also missing some on her stomach, so maybe it was unrelated. (That hen is now growing her neck feathers back in.)

 

[Schultz]

When we have girls that have been overwhelmed by the roos, we put saddles on them to prevent further feather loss and to prevent pecking.

 

[chocolate m'scovy]

That does happen, when you have roosters. Sometimes that means you have to increase the hen-to-rooster ratio!

 

[purpletree23]

You can also file the roos nails so they are not so sharp and damaging. The hen might need a break from him also.