Our chickens appear to have started molting (bared plymouth rocks). They are about 8 months old and have been laying well since about early September but we are starting to see some off days on egg production and tonight we got home and see two hens with large bald spots on their backs...is this normal? This happened today...last night when I got home and got the eggs they looked okay, molting in tail feather area...but two of them look like they had shaved these areas.... How do you keep the other chickens from pecking on them....they seem to want to peck at the open spots. Should I be putting something on this area? Using DE powder?? Do I need to separate them from the others? First time with molting so any help is appreciated.
Feed them extra protein. They need more protein when they molt and could be seeking it out by pecking. Either isolate the bleeding birds or use blue kote.
My Br's are going through a VERY similar thing. it started with my rooster having his legs pecked and then the hens lost feathers on their butts and were pecking at each other. But i think it is mites not lice, i have been using DE to control the situation and blu-kote on area's that were wounded from the pecking!
I have two 8 month old barred rocks and two silver leghorns molting too. I can't see any mites or lice. I have looked and looked. No one is being picked on. They have laid off laying though. This has been going on for a couple weeks. They seem to have some pen feathers coming in around their necks. I didn't think they would molt so young. The rest of the flock is fine, 18 other hens are not molting. Only these. I don't have any advise, only wanted to share my experience...it that helps at all
Thanks for the info...what is the best source of protein to feed them? Should I take them off of the layer feed for the time being?
