Lack of feathers...something wrong?

[loriensmom]

My chickens are over 1 year and the hens are missing feathers on their back and upper wings. The one rooster has hardly any tail feathers. I know they are supposed to molt, but these feathers have been missing for months and I don't see any coming in. What is happening? Thank you for the info in advance.

 

[Mahonri]

Does your rooster REALLY like your hens? sometimes that can be a problem.

 

[Buster]

Sounds like a rooster problem to me too. How many hens do you have for him? I usually have one or two that are a little bare because they are the roo's favorite, but some roos are more "active" than others.

 

[SterlingAcres]

Most likely, it's your roo. He's an active lover

 

[chicksinthemachine]

My friends hen has a very amorous rooster and he has pecked the feathers clean off her back, it has been months also with no sign of them coming back either. She has had them seperated for a few months. We don't think she will ever get them back either.

 

[Buster]

You could try making saddles for them. DW did that with a hen of ours and it worked pretty good. She had fuzz on her back with in a week.

 

[MissPrissy]

It sounds like you may have more than one problem like I did.

1. lack of animal proteins in most chicken feed now.
2. actively mating rooster
3. mean plucking hen

I switched to gamebird feed.

Got rid of the rooster.

Haven't found which hen is plucking but suspect 2.