Poor hen has most of her feathers pecked!

[Marcymom3]

Sorry you are going through this with your poor naked chicken! Are you sure that she's being plucked by her flock-mates?

Two of my flock, the RIRs, showed me bare bottoms last Thursday. They each had a spot about 3" in diameter without feathers. My friend and mentor suggested that mites could be the cause since I had not seen any bullying going on among my girls. They seem to get along fine. This is my first batch of chickens and I even though I looked I couldn't see any mites. But my friend said they look like dirt, which I certainly did see.

So, the next I sprayed their bottoms with blue kote, powdered all eight of them with Viper (permithrin sp?) dust, cleaned all the litter from the coop, dusted everything with DE and dusted the corners and roosts with Viper. So far, the girls have not lost anymore feathers and I can see what I think are new feathers coming in.

Coincidentally enough, the problem started shortly after I began feeding the wild birds again. My chickens range the yard and gravitate to the area under the feeders. I will be moving the feeders this weekend to an area outside the fenced in yard. And I'll be so thankful if the girls don't pick up any other wild bird germs in the future!

About your Lady Godiva, do you have an old sweater you can cut the sleeve off of to put on her? Probably an old knit cap with a hole cut out of the top would work just as well. She is probably bunching herself with the others to keep warm.

Good luck. Hope this helps!

Marcy

 

[LestersFlat]

Lady Godiva, love that reference! Poor thing!

The good news is that my husband finally was able to capture her this morning. She is safely in the "chicken hospital", a rabbit crate in the garage, and she is none too happy about it! I am hoping that she settles down when she realizes that no one is going to hurt her in there.

I am sure that it was the other girls doing this. When I went in last night to tuck them in for the night, she was up on the top rung of the ladder with Red Meanie pecking at her. I shooed RM away, and tried to catch her again, unsuccessfully. I didn't want to remove RM until I found out if the others were picking on her as well, and after the Hub was out there this morning, he said that she was pecked by 3 of the others in the time he was in there.

You can see in the photo that her feathers are growing back, but I will have to try to keep her warm in the meantime. I like the idea of a sweater sleeve or knit hat, but am afraid it will just stress her more if she can't move her wings. I think I can insulate the crate enough to try to warm her up, and she is out in the sun right now. Thankfully it is not supposed to be terribly cold this week.