naked bellies, no mites. Molting?

[newhenstein castle]

OMG! She was in her nest box, what??? I picked her up to find a cracked egg.

I went inside to wash her feathers and found that she doesn't have feathers on her belly anymore!! IS SHE MOLTING? I've heard of really long and hard molts that take 2 months. Would that save her from the ax???

 

[pkw]

I once had a production red that had a egg break inside her and she died on the nest. I hope your hen will be okay

 

[newhenstein castle]

Quote:
we've had 80degree weather for the last two weeks. It has been dry.
I DID take some of the whiteish substance and (gosh why didn't I think about putting it in hot water?!) fried it. It DOESN'T seem to be egg white as I thought! And if you check on the pictures of her tummy there are feathers missing. Her sides are completely naked. Mind you I am a newer chicken owner and haven't seen a hen in molt before. So I checked on the others and sure enough they are showing the same nakedness, except for one. Now please y'all just tell me that they are going through an early molt (not November like I would have thought???).

Lorelei, the sick, seems to be doing dandy now. I don't think she needs meds as of yet. She did lay a soft shelled egg earlier and I wonder even IF she layed internally and the white stuff WAS egg, would she have passed the missing shell by pushing out the egg from today???

 

[chuckzoo]

My one BR hen also has feathers missing down her breast area and she is not molting. In fact she has a bare spot below her vent too. No mites or anything of that nature that's just the way she is.

 

[newhenstein castle]

Quote:
so it could be that three of my hens are just that way? What about the mites? How do you know if they have mites? Can mites cause nakedness on belly? I couldn't see anything between their feathers.

 

[jjthink]

How's Lorelei doing today?

JJ

 

[CMV]

A naked belly or chest is usually indicative of a brood patch. Has she been broody or playing at being broody? Mites will cause feather loss and breakage, but usually not in patches like that. Mites will cause a more widespread/overall balding. I first noticed it (in my birds when they had mites) around the head and vent areas. And mites will also cause the skin to be irritated, but your hen's skin is positively perfect, so I am thinking it's not mites.

 

[newhenstein castle]

Lorelei is doing just fine this morning. Just think I almost killed her yesterday. Hopefully she never layed internally as suspected.

As for the bare belly. Three of my hens show the same nakedness, and only one of those was broody recently. I will have to check for mites, ALTHOUGH you are right and they have nice and clean skin. phu, I just don't know what to htink of all of this. I will keep you posted on her egg today.

Anyone know how I take the "Urgent" off of the title of this post?

 

[jjthink]

Glad she's doing well.

Re: editing title, go back to your first post and select the Edit option. This should allow you to edit title.

JJ

 

[ChickLover98]

My new-layer chick, Thalia layed a soft-shelled egg the first time she layed and the secons time, we found something that looks sort of like what you have in her nesting box. Later, we found some remains of eggshell around the coop. The other hens probably pecked at the soft shell and broke the egg. Hope this helps and your little hen is ok!! Good luck!