one breed of hens losing tail feathers, possible bullying or issue

[insertwittychickenname]

So me and my father own a few breeds of hens, we own plymouths, orpingtons (i believe), some ameraucanas ,and some Wyandottes. in the beginning when our first batch of ameraucanas got old enough, their back feathers were pulled out and eventually, we lost all of them to death from what i believe was stress from our rooster. we took the remaning ones we had and have put them in a different pen since the entire incident, but now it seems like our Wyandottes our suffering from the same fate. none of them have died, but almost all of our Wyandottes have had their tail and surrounding area feathers pulled or removed by other chickens, but no other breed of hens in the large flock have been treated the same way. My father says our Wyandottes are mixed with guineas, could that be the issue? we have also seen the other chickens who pull out their feathers eat them too along with the rooster, is there a nutrition issue? we plan on expanding their pen so they can spread out more from one another, or could it possible be a mite issue only affecting one breed? I'm afraid i don't know much about all the issues of raising chickens, so this issue has been worrying me for some time, so i'm hoping i can get some help here!
I plan on putting some pictures when I can!

 

[RWise]

How old are your birds? At 18-22 months they will molt, loose feathers and grow new ones.
Whet was the weather when you lost the girls?
Do you have a rooster? A rooster over mating can cause bare backs.
Feathers are protein, and they will eat the smaller ones, as long as they are not pulling them from others, I let it go. So if they need a higher protein feed they could be pulling and eating feathers. Or it could be boredom, not enuf space for each bird and nothing to do.
"Wyandottes are mixed with guineas" pictures please!
For mites I put hard wood ash and powdered sulfur in their dust baths.
Good luck!

 

[True Patriot]

For mites I put hard wood ash and powdered surfer in their dust baths.
Good luck!

How do you powder a surfer? Do they attract sharks?
Know you mean sulfur but couldn't resist

 

[True Patriot]

So me and my father own a few breeds of hens, we own plymouths, orpingtons (i believe), some ameraucanas ,and some Wyandottes. in the beginning when our first batch of ameraucanas got old enough, their back feathers were pulled out and eventually, we lost all of them to death from what i believe was stress. we took the remaning ones we had and have put them in a different pen since the entire incident, but now it seems like our Wyandottes our suffering from the same fate. none of them have died, but almost all of our Wyandottes have had their tail and surrounding area feathers pulled or removed by other chickens, but no other breed of hens in the large flock have been treated the same way. My father says our Wyandottes are mixed with guineas, could that be the issue? we have also seen the other chickens who pull out their feathers eat them too, is there a nutrition issue? we plan on expanding their pen so they can spread out more from one another, or could it possible be a mite issue only affecting one breed? I'm afraid i don't know much about all the issues of raising chickens, so this issue has been worrying me for some time, so i'm hoping i can get some help here!
I plan on putting some pictures when I can!

Pics would help greatly. RWise covered most of what I would suggest. If it's not from others picking or mating. Protien is a good guess. I keep mine on 20% feed. Since I can't calculate what they eat free range I keep the feed high to ensure they get a good balance.

 

[RWise]

How do you powder a surfer? Do they attract sharks?
Know you mean sulfur but couldn't resist

OK I fixed the typo, dyslexic me,,,LOL
Powdered surfers are a CA thing,,,

 

[SweetTea&Chicks]

My guess would be they aren't getting enough nutrients. What do you feed them? They probably need oyster shell. Could you post a picture of their coop? It might be too small.

 

[aart]

Some birds do have more brittle feathers so are more likely to lose them from mating and/or pecking.
I doubt your birds died from lost feathers, there must have been another issue involved.

We definitely need more info before speculating the problem or jumping to dramatic conclusions. Crowding and diet often cause a multitude of problems.

Knowing more about your goals for keeping chickens,
your flock size(numbers, ages, genders),
your coop(size in feet by feet with pics),
and what all and how exactly you are feeding,
might offer clues to if there is a solvable problem.

Oh, and, Welcome to BYC!
Where in this world are you located?
Climate is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, then it's always there!