Poor laying, naked chickens - feather pecking or mites or both? HELP!

[Peppercorngal]

Getting 1-4 eggs a day from 7 chickens for ~3 months now. They used to lay nicely (up to 7 eggs) until mid winter. They just slightly over 1 year old.

Overbreeding was and may be still issue (but 1 rooster for 7 hens seems to be normal). Feather pecking was and still a bit of an issue. There was a chicken that plucked everybody else's butts non stop and had to be isolated. While caged for 2 weeks she managed somehow to brake all of her tail feathers - depluming mites?

I don't see much feather pecking during daytime, but whatever happens to their feathers, they definitely eat them as there are no loose feathers in either coop or run.

They were on free choice of layer pellets, eggshells, some veggie & fish scraps and whatever bugs and worms they can find in the run. My mom says they poorly laying cause they fat (are they?), so I am trying to ration their food for 3 days now. No any effect on the laying so far. Also, that would still not explain the feathering issue.

Went to coop last night with a flashlight - could not see any mites on the chickens.

Please see the pictures and please suggest how to debug the situation.

We also have EE and Leghorns in the brooder that would need to go out soon and would like them not to become victims of whatever is going on with Barred Rocks.

View attachment 1822699 View attachment 1822700 View attachment 1822701 View attachment 1822702 View attachment 1822703 View attachment 1822704 View attachment 1822705 View attachment 1822706 View attachment 1822707 View attachment 1822708 View attachment 1822709 View attachment 1822710 View attachment 1822711 View attachment 1822712 View attachment 1822713

First of all it does appear that the lack of back feathers is associated with the rooster mating the hens. If you look there are a lot of head feathers missing too. The rooster grabs the hen's head feathers with his beak and then mounts the back. The other feather loss could very well be feather pulling. I would get some Bluekote and spray the featherless areas of the chickens. The color discourages the others from pecking on the bare spots. Chickens have a tendency to ignore the color blue and peck at the color red. I also agree you should clean up the fruits and veges laying all over. If it's not good for you to eat, it's not good for your chickens. I would buy some 24% chick food or grower food and supplement their layer feed for a couple of weeks. Give them all they want to eat and don't give them a bunch of treats for that time. The increase in protein should help. If they had lice and you examined them you would see the lice, so they probably don't. You can look online for lice photos in case you are not sure what to look for. BlueKote, high protein food, and lots of clean water should make a big difference. I have the same issue with the rooster removing feathers. The BlueKote keeps them from pecking each other! The feathers will not return until they molt. Good Luck!

 

[aart]

Overbreeding was and may be still issue (but 1 rooster for 7 hens seems to be normal). Feather pecking was and still a bit of an issue. There was a chicken that plucked everybody else's butts non stop and had to be isolated. While caged for 2 weeks she managed somehow to brake all of her tail feathers - depluming mites?

Depluming mites are very hard to ID and treat, topicals won't work. Here's some info on that:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...es-nothing-works.1256486/page-3#post-20162786

I don't think the composting is the issue, birds do not appear to be sick,
botulism would drop them dead if 'rotting food' was the issue.
Tho your scraps to bedding material ratio might be a bit off.

Is the rooster now gone?
Did the other birds stop losing feathers once the picker was isolated?
Some birds will self pick...and it could be because of bugs.


Bug Check Blurb.
Have you checked them over real well for mites and/or lice?

Google images of lice/mites and their eggs before the inspection so you'll know what you're looking for.

Part the feathers right down to the skin around vent, head/neck and under wings.

Best done well after dark with a strong flashlight/headlight, easier to 'catch' bird and also to check for the mites that live in structure and only come out at night to feed off roosting birds.

Wipe a white paper towel along the underside of roost to look for red smears(smashed well fed mites).

 

[Roo5]

Don’t worry so much about the scraps, you can pick them up or leave them there,I usually remove scraps because of flies.I don’t think that’s the issue.Birds appear to be healthy and red in the face and alert.I would think everything else such as rooster mounting will be easily to fix, maybe try hen aprons or keep him separated.As far as depluming mites,I couldn’t help as I’ve only ever had regular mites an dlice,nothing super hard to rid of (unless it’s gotten outta control).Do your birds have a place to dust?
Don’t let this stress or freak you out.Check the feathering and watch for tiny bugs crawling around,I usually check vents and neck feathers but it seem no one has butt fetahers so I’d check underneath the wings.

 

[Chickassan]

Are they tame enough to put sunscreen on? I'd zinc oxide the worst baldies at least since it is summer.