rooster causing feather loss!?

[Hennyhandler]

I have heard of roosters being to rough and causing a favored hen to lose her feathers to wear skin is showing on her back. I think that is what I am experiencing but the thing is it's not happening only to one of my hens. It's happening to all of my chickens (from just a row of feathers missing to a bald patch) and I can't recall hearing about this happening to all all of the hens instead of one. It had kind of made me start wondering if it was something else, either way do I put saddles on all of the hens?

Any info you have on the feather loss, what you think it is, what to do about it, or FINALLY saddles then please let me know.

 

[Year of the Rooster]

Could they be molting?

 

[popcornpuppy]

I know it's late at night and you may not be able to get pics, but if you could post pics it would help. Seeing the pattern of feather loss may help to determine the cause.
How many hens do you have? How many roos? One roo can "service" as many as 14 hens, but 8 to 10 is a more realistic number.
Roos can be very rough on the girls. Sadles will help if the roo is the cause.

 

[Hennyhandler]

Its like a perfect line right across the back above the tail. I've heard that's what hens that have been used by a rooster roughly look like. I just didn't know it would happen to all of them. It hasn't happened all at once. It's taken two or three weeks or more for it to get going enough for me to get worried. I was just wondering if this can happen to all of the hens at one time? Also, I have 10 hens and 1 rooster.

 

[popcornpuppy]

I know when my gals had rooster marks, it was down the back as well as spots on the shoulders. One of my gals was bare to the skin on her back. The feathers grew back when she molted though.
The rooster I have now is not as rough as the one that made my gals bare backed, and he will only go after the sexually mature females. As the hens mature, our boy has started to mount them all (Our current group of girls just reached laying age in the past month).

How old are your girls? How long have they been laying?

 

[Hennyhandler]

6 of them are about 8 to 9 months and the other 6 may be around 6 to 7 months. They're about 1 1/2 months apart. The first six have been laying since the beginning of September and the others around the end of October. Sorry about the rough estimates but it gets hard to keep up with. I figure it's the rooster since he seems fine and they do too besides that strip. I just don't know exactly how to go about taking care of it. what do you think?

 

[popcornpuppy]

I don't have any experience with parasites. So as long as they are not the cause of the feather loss, and the rooster is the cause, then I would say saddles would be my first thought. I was just waiting to see if anyone had an opinion about parasites before I offered my advice.

 

[Hennyhandler]

thank you so much. I think thats what it is too. I'm wondering though, how long do I leave the saddles on and when is it neccesary to put them on because besides one (now that i've gone back and looked and realized it may have looked worse from being wet earlier) the others are not that bad besides some feathers. No skin showing. What is immediate? I don't know much on this topic since i've never experienced it before. Any info would be good.