mites?

[AdrieeC]

It's been a few days since I have handled them but dh says that my black Astralorp is missing a lot of feathers on her underside which he noticed last night or yesterday. He was unable to catch her this morning for me to look at, but got the rooster instead and showed me that he is missing some feathers as well in approximately the same area. We have had these chickens for about 3 months. The other chickens as far as we can tell are not missing feathers but there are feathers around on the floor and in the nest boxes.

Everyone appears to be acting normally and do not show any other signs of illness. I am getting 3-4 eggs a day...occasionally I will get 5 but that has not happened in a while. Although they could be old enough to molt I don't think thats what this is because new feathers do not appear to be growing in. And what I have read indicates I should expect molt in the fall rather than the summer, and indicates that molt would start from the top of the chicken, not the bottom. I will try to get some pictures but we lost the camera charger so that might be difficult.

IF this is mites what specifically should I ask for as far as treatment, and should I get it from the feed store or elsewhere..?
If you think this is something other than mites, what is it and how should I go about treating it.

thanks for your help!!

 

[LarryPQ]

Hmm...all the feathers in one spot, on her underside, no other symptoms?

Is she sitting in nest box, trying to eat your fingers when you take away her eggs? Because it sounds like she could be going broody (right time of year) and pulling the feathers for better skin contact with the eggs.

 

[dawg53]

You should visually inspect each chicken for mites/lice, especially check around the vent area. You can see them crawling or eggs attached to the base of feathers. Treat with sevin5 dust which can be bought at any hardware store/garden center. You'll not only need to dust the chickens,but also inside their house, nests and roosts. repeat dusting in 10 days to kill any eggs that have hatched since the 1st dusting. If they dont have mites/lice it might be a vitamin deficiency of some sort or maybe molt, I'm not sure.