My year old hen's tail feathers have fallen out!!

[riverman]

She is a Delaware hen about a year old, and recently all of her tail feathers have fallen out!?! Is this part of molting or does she have something wrong with her? Ill get pictures tomorrow, and her black coloring is kind of fading. AHHH anybody??

 

[gamechicken]

na its just molting go buy game pureafy feed and her feather will come back twice as beatful

 

[shelleyd2008]

Sometimes they molt really 'easy' where you hardly notice they are molting. Other times they completely blow their feathers and look like you plucked them. There is a thread on here somewhere for posting pics of your 'worst molts', I believe it was a contest but I'll see if I can find it.

 

[LizzyJo]

Maybe someone is picking on her. Does she have roommates?

 

[shelleyd2008]

Well that was easy

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=394556<br />

 

[kidcody]

It is unusual for your hen to loose all of her tail feathers, molting wouldn't of had her loose all of the tail feathers. I'm thinking perhaps an animal might of got to her. Is that possible.? Is she missing feathers any palce else?

 

[Attack Chicken]

Quote:
It really isn't that unusual...Ok well here atleast it isn't One day they have a full and beautiful tail then the nextday you wake up with a bald butted bird- NO LIE LOL I've had it happen many of times with my hens and roosters.

Bad thing is the roosters are more like "OH MY GOSH" because of their big tails

Example:
One beautifull day to cruise around inside and get photo shot

Then WHAM the next day the bird is "BB" Bald butted and front heavy

She may have already molted her other feathers you just might not of noticed OR she might be molting her others soon enough. This big guy molted his before he lost his tail.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
It is not at all unusual for them to lose all their tail feathers. Some birds lose almost all of their feathers, not just their tails.

 

[riverman]

Thanks everybody! I was scared she was getting sick. Yeah she's also loosing some of her little feathers, but yeah in 2 days the entire tail was gone just like your Roo Attack chicken! Thanks for the picture post.

And she does have roommates but her and the other Del Hen rule the roost, and their man is the sweetest most protecting Rooster I've ever seen so I 100% know its not the other chickens on this one.

Whew..

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
It really isn't that unusual...Ok well here atleast it isn't One day they have a full and beautiful tail then the nextday you wake up with a bald butted bird- NO LIE LOL I've had it happen many of times with my hens and roosters.

Bad thing is the roosters are more like "OH MY GOSH" because of their big tails

Example:
One beautifull day to cruise around inside and get photo shot
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/16241_img_0957.jpg


Then WHAM the next day the bird is "BB" Bald butted and front heavy
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/16241_img_1699.jpg


She may have already molted her other feathers you just might not of noticed OR she might be molting her others soon enough. This big guy molted his before he lost his tail.

That is exactly how our roosters look right now, pretty pitiful. thanks goodness they grow them back lol