Odd behaviour, and feather plucking

[danives]

Hi all, I'm hoping you might be able to help me.

We've recently come into care of 3 chickens, and for the past 5 months have been looking after them, seemingly with little issue, using guides online and the like. However a couple of weeks ago one of our chickens (we presume oldest), starting staying in her coop more and rarely coming out, just sitting in her corner. She seemed fine, and occasionally came out to eat, but I was slightly concerned. Initially reading online we presumed she was being broody, and I found that there were a number of eggs under her at the time (which I since removed) - however we noticed that she seemed to be plucking the feathers from her legs.

I *then* read it might be that she is molting, which might be part of the reason for her staying in the coop - however it has been a few weeks and her legs don't seem to be getting any better / nothing changing.

I'm slightly concerned, and not really sure what to do (or if I should be doing anything). We don't believe there are mites, which is another thing we read about namely as we had cleaned and treated their coop after the first month, with fortnightly mini-cleans.

I've uploaded some pictures of our chicken here:

https://imgur.com/a/PDHbNAN

- would someone be able to look and let me know if it's something we should be concerned about?

Thank you,

Dan

 

[Thunder344]

My broodies always pluck their breast feathers to be able to be skin on shell with the eggs. It helps keep the eggs warm and incubated. Maybe that's what is happening?

 

[danives]

My broodies always pluck their breast feathers to be able to be skin on shell with the eggs. It helps keep the eggs warm and incubated. Maybe that's what is happening?

That could be possible, although the past week her egg production has gone to 0 - but when the issue started there were quite a few eggs. Lots of feathers around where she nests though.

 

[Thunder344]

That could be possible, although the past week her egg production has gone to 0 - but when the issue started there were quite a few eggs. Lots of feathers around where she nests though.

Broodies do stop laying when the go broody.