Our Frizzle is losing feathers and is being harassed by our other chickens

[MomOfBantams]

Hello... I'm looking for help/advice for our poor Frizzle hen, named Zoey. She is just over 1 year old. Recently we noticed that the rest of the flock (who are a year older than her and definitely the alphas in the flock) have been picking on her. Chasing her, pecking at her, stealing treats from her, disrupting her when she's trying to lay eggs, just generally making her life miserable. We try to separate them for a while when we see it happening, but we don't have a separate coop so she is still sleeping with them at night. Another factor is that 1 of our hens (actually Zoey's sister...they hatched together last summer) recently hatched 4 of her own chicks, so she is being a super protective mama. She will literally attack Zoey for no reason. Zoey avoids the new chicks at all costs, but the mama will go out of her way to attack her. Thankfully mama and chicks do have their own little coop that they stay in at night, but during the day we have to really watch them.

So that's the background. The other issue is that we started noticing Zoey was losing feathers. We thought maybe she was starting to molt, but this seemed much different than other times we've seen our girls molt. When others molted, their new feathers came in very quickly. Zoey's don't seem to be growing back. She was mainly losing feathers on her wings and her head. We thought maybe the others were pecking at her, but we never see blood. She has bald patches on each wing and her poor little head is so sparse. The feathers that remain are starting to look weird and ragged. The skin where she is bald is starting to look scaly.

We don't notice any bugs on her upon inspection. But all my google searches have me thinking we could have a mite/lice situation on our hands?? However, the other hens that sleep in the same coop are not having any issues like this. We did a thorough clean out of the coop and dusted with mite/lice powder just to see if this could help. This was just yesterday, so it's too soon to tell. I'm looking for any advice or thoughts on this matter. Does this sound like mites/lice or could it be something else? I'm on the verge of taking her to a vet, but she is the most timid girl (for obvious reasons!) and she is really hard to catch and is very skittish. Any advice is appreciated! I'm attaching a few photos of our poor girl. The last photo is from last year when she was in her full, frizzle glory!

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[Peaches Lee]

Poor little sweet hen. Any rooster in the flock? I'm wondering if she got picked on, lost some feathers, and now, while she's trying to grow them back--the hens keep picking out the new feather growth.

 

[Tonyroo]

Her behavior is based on being the bottom of the pecking order. I think she's going through a molt.

Usually if you have mites or lice occurring you'll see swelling and redness, since they have to pierce the chicken skin to drink from. It will be easy to notice if you do a physical examination on your chicken skin.

Molting duration occurs differently for every chicken, they should be separated if there slow at regrowing feathers just to keep them away from unnecessary injuries.

My own hens are going through a molt right now and I see some look worse than others. It's definitely uncomfortable for them and they stopped laying eggs.

Your frizzle might need some attention due to being at the bottom of the pecking order and going through a molt.

 

[MomOfBantams]

Poor little sweet hen. Any rooster in the flock? I'm wondering if she got picked on, lost some feathers, and now, while she's trying to grow them back--the hens keep picking out the new feather growth.

No we do not have a rooster in the flock. But the two oldest hens are definitely at the top of the pecking order...one of them even tries to crow like a rooster sometimes haha.

 

[MomOfBantams]

Her behavior is based on being the bottom of the pecking order. I think she's going through a molt.

Usually if you have mites or lice occurring you'll see swelling and redness, since they have to pierce the chicken skin to drink from. It will be easy to notice if you do a physical examination on your chicken skin.

Molting duration occurs differently for every chicken, they should be separated if there slow at regrowing feathers just to keep them away from unnecessary injuries.

My own hens are going through a molt right now and I see some look worse than others. It's definitely uncomfortable for them and they stopped laying eggs.

Your frizzle might need some attention due to being at the bottom of the pecking order and going through a molt.

Thank you for your comment! I hope she is just molting, like you say. I should have mentioned that she is part Silkie, and I've never gone through a Silkie molt (the 2 silkies we had previously both got killed by hawks before they ever got a chance to molt). Maybe they take a bit longer to go through the process.

 

[Peaches Lee]

Have you dusted her for mites? If not, as a precaution I would. Not sure where you live, but typically, molt happens in the Fall when the nights become cooler and days become shorter--signaling colder days ahead/time to build new feathers for winter.

She's at the bottom of the peck order and will need to get some extra TLC. Separating her is probably your best option.

She is certainly an adorable little hen.

 

[MomOfBantams]

Have you dusted her for mites? If not, as a precaution I would. Not sure where you live, but typically, molt happens in the Fall when the nights become cooler and days become shorter--signaling colder days ahead/time to build new feathers for winter.

She's at the bottom of the peck order and will need to get some extra TLC. Separating her is probably your best option.

She is certainly an adorable little hen.

Thank you so much for commenting. We live in Michigan where it's currently summer...our other chickens have molted in fall in the past, so I thought it was strange she'd be molting now. This hen is part Silkie. She has a combination of silkie feathers as well as regular feathers...and she's a Frizzle! I don't know if her unique feather situation could affect when she molts??

We did a thorough coop clean-out and dusted for mites just to be safe, so we'll see if that helps.

We try to look out for her as much as we can. If we see anyone giving her a hard time during the day, we immediately lock them in the pen to separate them. Unfortunately we don't really have a good set-up to keep her separate from the others at night. We have the main coop and then a small broody coop where our mama is currently staying with 4 chicks. I think they are going to outgrow the broody coop soon though so maybe Zoey can take over the broody coop when that time comes.

I will keep everyone updated!

 

[gimmie birdies]

My frizzle has spent more time molting than looking beautiful. Any bird during a molt will feel down. It also sounds like she may not have a "hench hen" or best friend. As hens get older, they start to not need a hench. As long as she is not bloody, I think chickens will be chickens.

 

[MomOfBantams]

My frizzle has spent more time molting than looking beautiful. Any bird during a molt will feel down. It also sounds like she may not have a "hench hen" or best friend. As hens get older, they start to not need a hench. As long as she is not bloody, I think chickens will be chickens.

Thank you for this comment! Great info!! She used to have a buddy (her "sister" that she hatched with last year)...but now that buddy has moved on to become a mama. Mama wants nothing to do with Zoey and has turned on her as she's being super protective of the chicks. Hoping maybe when the chicks get a bit older everyone will make friends!

 

[MomOfBantams]

Hello everyone! I just wanted to follow up on Zoey's condition. It's been a couple months since my original post, and she is finally starting to fill in with new, beautiful feathers! It has been such a relief to see her starting to look like herself again. So I guess this little lady just takes an extremely long time to molt!

She is still bottom of the pecking order in our flock (even our "teenage" chicks will try to intimidate her), but she is not getting picked on nearly as bad. I will see her occasionally roaming the yard with the others. So I'm hoping things also improve in that department.

I wanted to share her progress in case anyone else is having a similar feather issue. Again, she is part silkie and she is a frizzle, so I'm not sure if this somehow affects her molting.