Missing feathers?!

[PigTheChicken]

Hello, I have 5 chickens and 3 of them seem to have a problem with their feathers. I’ve had 4 of them since April 2020 and we got them from a farm which had been selling chickens for a while. When we first got 6 of them we but weren’t given a proper look of what they were like. (we were new to chickens and now know that we should have taken a proper look and had more info on them) We were also told that they were moulting and so that was why that had bald patches of skin all over them. When we realised them at home we descovered how poorly their condition was, they were very skinny, they barely had feathers on them and they were aggressive towards us. There was only one hen (who was probably a little older than a year old) that had all of her feathers and looked in okay condition except for being a bit skinny. After around 4 months they had looked a little better as they were fatter and were starting to get used to us being around them. We had also gotten a new hen (a little Wyandotte bantam) who slowly was introduced to the flock. After around 7 or 8 months one of the chickens had fully grown their feathers out. The other 4 chickens had been slowly growing small patches of feathers back. Unfortunately we lost 2 of the chickens, one because of old age and the other one was the hen that had all of her feathers since we had got her and unfortunately we lost her because my dog got to her) We didn’t think many were going to make it because of how their condition was but they are all happy and healthy and 2 of them come right up to use and let up pet them. The only issue is that they are still missing feathers after all this time and we don’t know what from? The patches with no feathers are on their back, bottom, wings and neck. We did put some mite and lice powder on them at one stage but that did not do any difference. We also have my Wyandotte which has all her feathers and so I would think that if there were mites she would end up with missing feathers too? We also try and clean our coop every 2 weeks, but we have ducks so it tends to get messy(sorry that it looks dirty in the photo it had been raining for a week non stop) We don’t really want to end up having chickens like this roaming around our property so if you have any suggestions it would be really appreciated!!
(Sorry for the long post)

 

[rosemarythyme]

That looks like feather picking damage. Have those birds in the photos ever grown any of those feathers back, only to have them disappear again? Or have they never grown any feathers back in that area?

 

[PigTheChicken]

No they haven’t

That looks like feather picking damage. Have those birds in the photos ever grown any of those feathers back, only to have them disappear again? Or have they never grown any feathers back in that area?

One of my chickens have never been able to grow feathers on her back, the other 2 have grown feathers on their back but not elsewhere. If they are feather Peking is there anything I can do about it?

 

[rosemarythyme]

The bird(s) that have never grown any feathers back may have damaged feather follicles at this point, hard to say. Any that are growing feathers/pin feathers and then lose them again, that's likely to be an active feather picking issue.

Feather pecking/eating can usually be attributed to lack of protein in the diet (so check what your protein % is on your feed, and also consider if you're feeding too many treats that may be diluting down the protein %), and/or stress or boredom from crowding or nothing to do. How big is your set up (approx measurements would be great) and is there anything for them to do in the run area?

There's anti-picking sprays (which may or may not work) as well as pinless peepers, which make it harder for them to see to pick on each other, but those aren't permanent solutions if the protein or boredom is an issue.