little help please

[cluckersthe1st]

Hello, I have 4 chickens in my back garden for nearly 2 years now. Thankfully without a days illness or bug, but lately i have noticed little brown hen (cluckers) has lost the feathers from the top of her head, she walks raising her legs right up which has rubbed the feathers off her breast, she looks quite unhappy, always with her friends and a very tame chick she now eats away from others and seems a loner. Her appertite is normal, is still laying lovely eggs, vent clean, comb pink and healthy. i have cheaked for lice and injury but nothing !!!!. Something is wrong though i can tell

. Any ideas very welcome.

 

[easttxchick]

Could she be the favorite of the rooster(if you have one) or is it possible she's molting?

 

[Southern Bee Lady]

Sometime my hens get a little standoffish and hyper when they go thru molt as if they are afraid they are going to get picked on by the other chickens. This may be what is going on with your little girl.
Good luck

 

[cluckersthe1st]

Thanku both, i hope it is a molt the others have had theirs and she was last to go. Watching though the leg movements are very strange, she lifts her legs up with each step so it rubs her breast, this is the only bold patch (apart from head) asif shes itching or discomfort. There are no feathers in the coop either. ooooh i dont know will keep watching x

 

[heather g]

Hello i'm new to this site and a newbie as far as hen keeping is concerned too !! i've had my hens for about 6 wks and last wk after many attempts to actually pick one up i noticed that she was totally bald on her breast first of all i thought that maybe she had plucked them out herself , but there are no feathers in the run or the hen house so then i figured that as long as she is laying and eating that must be something that happens to hens or maybe she has always been bald !!!!i have noticed that she likes th sleep in the nest box and never roosts on the perches, so i have dusted her wood shavings with mite and lice powder in the hope that if it was any of those pesky little critters it might help