Rooster losing feathers for no reason

[jmclellan]

Hello,
I have a flock of 10 hens and one rooster. The first picture is the rooster he is loosing feathers solely around his neck regularly. He has been sprayed with anti-lice spray and even powder as has the hen. I have also bathed him in warm water with lice powder. However the skin is exposed and no feather show regrowth. Both are the only two suffering from this issue. The other 8 hens show no feather loss whatsoever. I have seen one of the hens peck the rooster in the neck while feeding but this has only started in the last two months
.
I need to know if it is the other hens doing this or is it a parasite? It is becoming very concerning and quite disgusting as I have Roy since he was hatched and he has been a great breeding rooster having given me 13 chicks over the past six months. He is also the most protective rooster of the flock out of the roosters I've had. He's a better guard than my blue heeler!

Please help!

Kind regards,
Jason

 

[sourland]

It appears that you have one or more feather pluckers/eaters in your flock. The feather loss on your hen may be rooster damage, but I'm betting that in addition someone is plucking her feathers too.

 

[jmclellan]

Thanks for the reply.

I did considered the fact that the hen was old and was getting attacked by the younger hens. So I moved her into another chicken coop with one hen that had just had chicks, however the chicks had been removed leaving just these two. The damage seemed to heal and the feathers started to regrow but now its happening again.

The rooster, Roy, is now the only one in the main flock with these sorts of wounds. They show no signs of regrowth.

With the hen I would say parasites but Roy's situation is solely on the neck.