Missing feather's from back at base of tail! Bareback chickens?!?!?!

[CindyD57]

Same problem. Out of 5 hens, one is missing feathers at the base of her tail and three (this hen included) are missing feathers under their tails on their bottoms. The one hen is also missing neck feathers. We have no roosters, but one hen seems to be dominant

 

[subhanalah]

Same problem.  Out of 5 hens, one is missing feathers at the base of her tail and three (this hen included) are missing feathers under their tails on their bottoms.  The one hen is also missing neck feathers.  We have no roosters, but one hen seems to be dominant

have you checked for signs of external parasites?

 

[blissed]

Two of our five nearly year-old hens are missing feathers too. I'm wondering if we should try treating them for lice/mites just in case, even though we don't see obvious signs of infestation...

One has bare patches where her wings meet her back and lost all her tail feathers; she's one of the bossy ones, more likely to bully than be bullied. The second ,has a completely bald belly and is starting to lose some around her neck, and she's been spending a lot of time burrowing in the dirt.

We don't see obvious signs of mites or lice, but we're not very experienced — the specks we do see look like dirt to our eyes. And we don't see much bullying.

Egg production has dropped slightly, from 4 a day to 3. They seem happy otherwise, but this is frustrating!

 

[CindyD57]

I can't see anything. I'm going to dust with DE and add some sand. They molted in the fall and were looking really good. Very frustrating

 

[subhanalah]

DE is useless for parasite control, especially an infestation.

 

[dawg53]

DE is useless for parasite control, especially an infestation.

x2

 

[CindyD57]

So what would you suggest?

 

[dawg53]

So what would you suggest?

 

[olinorfolk]

I believe I have the same problem, but these are with pheasants and are only 4-5 weeks old. I know pheasants can be a bit nasty with each other, but is this the reason?? Only one is suffering mainly, with the back, sides, and some on the front of the neck and top of the head. They have quite a rich diet, and I give them live grubs and the like fairly often. So protein should be high. They seem to eat SO MUCH until their crops are ridiculous. Is it possible to over-feed?
I haven't seen feather plucking by others, or mounting, and there aren't feathers on the floor. It's mainly just this one out of the four we have but one other has some balding on the back. The others are completely fine. Other than that it looks a bit unsteady on its feet occasionally (but I might just be imagining it; it is certainly more nervous). Could it be stress or is feather loss from that unheard of? Could it be mites? (although I see none, and the others are fine) or another disease?
Either way, what should I do? Should I put a saddle on, or some "anti-peck" fluid, or something to prevent infection if blood is drawn (no sign of blood but looks a bit raw).
And in terms of diet, should I should just give them more of everything, given that protein is already quite high?

Cheers
Oli

 

[BigRedChickie]

Update:
I have had the saddles on the girls now for almost a month and one of them is growing feathers back like crazy. The other one, not so much, but, I did finally catch the one who looks perfect in the act of jumping on top of them and scratching! So I know for sure that it's her now. I just switched (Lucille) the one who wasn't growing feathers back as well to a saddle with a wing cover on it too and it seems to be working better. I got the saddles from Louise's Country Closet. I ordered them through eBay.