Molting or Mites?

[DWClay]

Hello all, for the past few months my mom and have been dealing with our chickens losing their feathers. It’s started with my my moms then mine began. My oldest three are the same age as all of hers as we got them together. Therefore the older girls just turned a year old.

Now it’s started out as everyone losing feathers in just their buts. So we thought maybe bullying we watch them and put cameras in their coop and no bullying was happening. So next thought was mites. We treated them every two weeks with ivermectin dust baths and poultry spray when it was warm enough.
We did this routine for 4 months. My girls are getting no better. All of them have bare bottoms now. Some worse than others. A couple of my younger ones have started to lose a patch of neck feathers as well.
Every chicken person I know who show the pictures to tell me it’s molting but my moms poor GLW looks TERRIBLE and RED. We have both looked our chickens up and down and combed their feathers and can’t SEE any mites. And we are up to treating them six times in the last three months as well as deep cleaning and treating the coop. I’ve included picture of mine. These are my GLW that have it worst. My other girls have it a little less but still bare bottoms. But my RIB doesn’t seem to have anything going on!

So is it molting? Can chickens molt at a year old? Could my older ones be molting because the younger ones are? Is that even a thing? Thank you for your help!

 

[nuthatched]

She's being picked.
What's the coop space, for how many birds?
Diet?
Since the rib doesn't have the issue, she's likely the culprit.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Can chickens molt at a year old?

While it's not common, chickens can molt at any time due to them not reading the books on what they "should" do, as well as individual genetics. Sympathetic molt is not a thing I've yet seen.

I personally would question feed routine.. regular feed, treats, and supplements.. and state that coupled with genetics.. I'd not rule out symptoms of ascites.. as this *can* be how it presents (sometimes before other symptoms become apparent).

https://thecapecoop.com/water-belly-ascetis-in-chickens/

Noting that all exposed chicken skin will get this red appearance. You might try putting some Nu stock on those exposed areas to see if it helps.

 

[DWClay]

She's being picked.
What's the coop space, for how many birds?
Diet?
Since the rib doesn't have the issue, she's likely the culprit.

7 chickens with a 6 x 16 coop and run, 8 x 8 aviary attached to that and daily supervised free range time!

Food is Kambach layers feed (17%) protein, with fruit and vegetable treats every once in a while and some mealworms to get them to come in from being free range!

The thing about my RIB is even though she isn’t losing feathers on her butt she looks disheveled, and the other day I had to soak her because she had poop that matted to her feathers! And when its feeding time my single combed GLW always gets to eat first! So I always thought she was head of the group!

So my RIB is bullying all 6 of them and making them have bare butts…great! One of poor Delawares has feathers missing on her neck! OUCH!

Thanks for the info!!