Oh my gosh what happened???

[Sweetheat]

She is lowest in the pecking order. Found this today. Did they really peck her this much or is it something else?? They never seem to be fighting or anything. What do I do? Poor thing

 

[nuthatched]

Looks like molting.

 

[Sweetheat]

I’ve never experienced a molt. Why wouldn’t they keep feathers when it’s cold? First time chicken mom anxiety ha

 

[Kiki]

How old is your bird?

 

[Sweetheat]

How old is your bird?

9 months about

 

[dawg53]

I'd say it's a mini molt unless she has been picking her own feathers and eating them or another bird picking at her.
Chickens usually molt once a year starting in autumn. However they can have mini molts at any time. They molt fluff as chicks when they start to feather out as an example.
It's natures way of replacing old or damaged feathers with new ones.
However, molt can also be caused by stress, improper nutrition, light on in coop at night, overcrowding etc...

 

[jolenesdad]

I’m not so sire that’s a molt as the skin is bare and you’d normally see *some* heather follocles growing. It sort of looks like she stuck her head in somewhere and pulled out a bunch of feathers. I imagine in a few days they all start growing back.

 

[Sweetheat]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. We recently had to switch their food because we were on Texas Naturals and they ALL got diarrhea and egg production was way down which I didn’t think too much about bc it’s winter. Switched to purina and poop is back to normal and I’m getting 4 eggs a day instead of 1 so this food switch sort of coincides with the feather loss. Hopefully it’s something harmless. They’re all very sweet to each other normally and have plenty of room.