Losing feathers on back

[Chickennewbie72]

We cannot figure out what's wrong with our flock. Several months ago a couple of our hens started losing feathers on their backs. We had extra roosters who had just matured at the time, so we thought it was from overmating (3 roosters to only 10 laying hens). We got rid of the extra roosters and added a new batch of hens so we now have 2 roos and 17 laying hens. But more hens started losing back feathers. We suddenly realized it might be lice. So we did a thorough clean out of the coop and treated all the chickens for lice. But we have checked all the hens multiple times and have never seen any lice or eggs. They also don't appear to be itchy or pluck their own feathers. Then all the hens stopped laying. Out of 17 hens, we are getting 3-4 eggs per day. We also noticed our younger hens have not lost their feathers, but all our year+ hens are losing them. So we went back to the over-mating theory and separated all roosters. But now we've noticed our 4 month old chickens all have frayed feathers. They're not losing them, but they look awful! What in the world is causing this?? I will try to post pics.

 

[Sally PB]

Waiting to see the pictures...

It only takes one rooster to cause the damage due to mating. Do your boys have long claws or spurs?

 

[Kiki]

We cannot figure out what's wrong with our flock. Several months ago a couple of our hens started losing feathers on their backs. We had extra roosters who had just matured at the time, so we thought it was from overmating (3 roosters to only 10 laying hens). We got rid of the extra roosters and added a new batch of hens so we now have 2 roos and 17 laying hens. But more hens started losing back feathers. We suddenly realized it might be lice. So we did a thorough clean out of the coop and treated all the chickens for lice. But we have checked all the hens multiple times and have never seen any lice or eggs. They also don't appear to be itchy or pluck their own feathers. Then all the hens stopped laying. Out of 17 hens, we are getting 3-4 eggs per day. We also noticed our younger hens have not lost their feathers, but all our year+ hens are losing them. So we went back to the over-mating theory and separated all roosters. But now we've noticed our 4 month old chickens all have frayed feathers. They're not losing them, but they look awful! What in the world is causing this?? I will try to post pics.

Where about do you live? In the US?
Are you sure your birds aren't molting?

 

[Chickennewbie72]

Whoops! Didn't think this posted and I reposted the whole thing Here are the pics

 

[Chickennewbie72]

Where about do you live? In the US?
Are you sure your birds aren't molting?

South Georgia so it's hot. We have a couple almost 2 yr old hens who have never noticeably molted and a bunch of 1 year hens who have not yet molted. So maybe?? But it's only on their backs!

 

[Kiki]

Whoops! Didn't think this posted and I reposted the whole thing Here are the pics

It doesn't look like they are losing a bunch of feathers to me.

They probably won't look "normal" again from the rooster damage until they molt.

 

[Chickennewbie72]

It doesn't look like they are losing a bunch of feathers to me.

They probably won't look "normal" again from the rooster damage until they molt.

 

[Nomadicus]

Being all the hens seem to have the damage in the same area it does look like older rooster damage. If it gets really bad outfit them with a saddle maybe?