Jerks or Sick?

[beppler3]

So we have a bunch of girls that are missing tons of feathers. They are missing a lot of them on the backs of their heads and on their backs just above their tails. (See pictures) They looked awesome all winter. I let them molt this year. This started maybe 2 weeks ago. Tonight we had a dead bird, but she also might have just been old. Are we picking on each other or should I be treating them for some sort of pest/ disease or doing something different with nutrition?

 

[Ducksandchickens]

So we have a bunch of girls that are missing tons of feathers. They are missing a lot of them on the backs of their heads and on their backs just above their tails. (See pictures) They looked awesome all winter. I let them molt this year. This started maybe 2 weeks ago. Tonight we had a dead bird, but she also might have just been old. Are we picking on each other or should I be treating them for some sort of pest/ disease or doing something different with nutrition?

Hmm... do you have any roosters?

 

[beppler3]

Hmm... do you have any roosters?

We do no have Roosters in the coop, but they can see roosters and hear roosters.

 

[Ducksandchickens]

We do no have Roosters in the coop, but they can see roosters and hear roosters.

What do you mean by that?

 

[rachelsflock]

They're probably over mating each other. Yes, they're all female, but sometimes they all go nuts and everybody decides they'll be in charge and do the deed too. Feather damage results because suddenly it's like you have many, many roosters. I'd be interested in seeing if anyone else has a solution for this situation because I had a similar problem years ago and I only managed to fix it by adding a rooster (won't let a hen do his job) and culling hens that tried to take the rooster out (I didn't want to, but I lost a rooster before I started processing, right in front of my eyes). Hopefully there's other ways if over-mating winds up being what you're dealing with.

 

[beppler3]

They're probably over mating each other. Yes, they're all female, but sometimes they all go nuts and everybody decides they'll be in charge and do the deed too. Feather damage results because suddenly it's like you have many, many roosters. I'd be interested in seeing if anyone else has a solution for this situation because I had a similar problem years ago and I only managed to fix it by adding a rooster (won't let a hen do his job) and culling hens that tried to take the rooster out (I didn't want to, but I lost a rooster before I started processing, right in front of my eyes). Hopefully there's other ways if over-mating winds up being what you're dealing with.

I’ll have to give it a try. I have some silkies that I breed for specialty meat and I have an overabundance if older roosters. Hopefully they’re aggressive enough to fix the problem!

 

[rachelsflock]

Sounds cool. Just as a heads up, the roosters don't have to be aggressive. Just in charge- dominant enough to not like a "rooster" roostering their hens. He just needs to wind up on top of the pecking order, but most roosters when they're the only rooster wind up there eventually since hens really like to be fed. Most mushy, soft roosters could even do the job (although there ARE always exceptions).

 

[kwhites634]

So we have a bunch of girls that are missing tons of feathers. They are missing a lot of them on the backs of their heads and on their backs just above their tails. (See pictures) They looked awesome all winter. I let them molt this year. This started maybe 2 weeks ago. Tonight we had a dead bird, but she also might have just been old. Are we picking on each other or should I be treating them for some sort of pest/ disease or doing something different with nutrition?

You let them molt? I didn't know you could prevent molting. More than likely the bareback hens have had the feathers rubbed off by a rooster breeding them, assuming you have a rooster. If you don't, I don't know what the problem is.

 

[beppler3]

You let them molt? I didn't know you could prevent molting. More than likely the bareback hens have had the feathers rubbed off by a rooster breeding them, assuming you have a rooster. If you don't, I don't know what the problem is.

If you artificially light the coop they won’t molt, egg production continues, etc. we HAVE lots of roosters but none in with them. I believe that @rachelsflock made an excellent suggestion. I knew it was something that happened, but I didn’t think about it. I have placed a rooster in with the hens and we will see what happens!

 

[beppler3]

What do you mean by that?

The hens are in a coop with multiple rooms. There are roosters outside (we have doors and windows open to the outside, hens stay in the outside roosters will come up to the windows and doors and talk with the hens) and roosters in another room adjacent to where my layers are that the layers can’t see but can hear.