New B.O's have problem

[gachickeeper]

I have 6 B.O's that are 10 weeks old and doing great. Had a friend offer me 4 more to go with mine. I accepted and my wife went and picked them up for me. The birds were supposed to be the same age as mine but they seem to me to be about 6 or seven weeks old. But the problem is that their backsides seem to be quite featherless, all four! One of them is a roo. They dont seem to be bloody just featherless showing pink skin and a few weird black bristly spots. Also one of the pullets has very sparse feathers around her neck also. My digital camera is on the fritz or I wold have posted a pic. I thought maybe fleas or mites so I dusted them with some dust I got at the feed store. I dont know what it is but I have them seperated from my other girls for now and I'm feeding them really well hoping to fatten them up and get them healed up. Any ideas as to what the problem is? as soon as I get my camera back I will post pics.

 

[blurose]

I was just wonderin, could they have just had their feathers plucked out? This can sure happen if they are too crowded or if another bigger, more dominant chicken can get to them. Also, if they did have mites, lice or fleas (do chickens get fleas?) other chickens would pick at the little bugs that they'd see crawling on the other birds and pluck the feathers off to get at em easier. Also, I've had one of my own birds who just seemed to like eating feathers. I can't explain it. She got the same food as everybody else, organic layer feed, but still would sit and pluck the feathers off any other bird within her reach and eating them while roosting at night. She also would be seen many times "cleaning up" after a molting hen. She is the one of my barnevelders that although 3 years old has only started laying this spring. Queer ain't it? It would seem that my other hens have become fed up with her nightly "vampirism" and have ejected her from the henhouse at night. She can now be found most nights roosting on top of the henhouse, 12 feet in the air and all by herself.

serves her right. :|

 

[gachickeeper]

Im hoping they were just too crowded, my wife said they were in a fairly long cage with a wire bottom not a crazy amount together but quite a few. I even thought it had something to do with the wire bottom cage but that wouldnt explain the one with the problem around her neck I dont think