Roosters Pecking the Back of Hens

[aart]

Injury, exposure to the elements, insect bites and chances of infection are all reasons to not take bare backs lightly. Do the chickens seem to care? No. But if they were supposed to exist like that they would have been born that way, like the Naked Neck chickens and their bare necks. Bare backs make chickens needlessly vulnerable and good management should include keeping the birds adequately feathered in seasons other than molting.

That cushion of feathers is there to provide protection, without it...no protection. Is protection important? Apparently so or the chickens would all be bald as a cue ball all over their bodies.

Sometimes they are during a hard molt.

 

[Beekissed]

Briefly and are already growing feathers to recover the protection....bare backed hens rarely get to recover all year as they are being used over and over on the same place. I've seen them pretty sparse but I've never seen a completely bald bird in molt.

 

[Ridgerunner]

My problems with barebacked hens have had a lot more to do with the hen than the rooster, rooster to hen ratio, or breed. Simply put, the hens had brittle feathers. When the rooster mounts, they break easily. I’ve read that could be genetic.

All I know from experience is I ate those hens and did not hatch any of their eggs. The problem disappeared from my flock.

I’m sure there can be other causes. Nothing with chickens is that simple.

Bee, take a look at post 45 in this thread. You’ll probably like it. Just don’t be sipping a cup of coffee when you open it.

Molting Contest
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=394556

 

[Beekissed]

That poor thing!!! I've never had one molt like that. I also cull for birds that don't recover from molt at a usual rate...could mean some kind of nutritive deficiency or feather quality issue.

 

[Alaskan]

Thanks for all the input, I learned a great deal.

 

[cottagefarmgirl]

I have a rooster that has picked a favorite hen to mate with. However, he is so rough that he causes her to bleed behind her head and on her neck when he mounts her. Is this normal? She puts her head through the fence and sits to keep him off of her.

 

[Alaskan]

I have a rooster that has picked a favorite hen to mate with. However, he is so rough that he causes her to bleed behind her head and on her neck when he mounts her. Is this normal? She puts her head through the fence and sits to keep him off of her.

No, that is not normal, or at least that happens, but only very rarely.

 

[cottagefarmgirl]

I read that sometime the feathers break during mating causing a little blood, and that it was normal. She's not the only on that he mates with, but she does seem to get the worst of it. Maybe she's fighting him more. He's just a very active rooster. I am working to separate them.

 

[aart]

I read that sometime the feathers break during mating causing a little blood, and that it was normal. She's not the only on that he mates with, but she does seem to get the worst of it. Maybe she's fighting him more. He's just a very active rooster. I am working to separate them.

That can happen if the hen is just growing new feathers after a molt which contain a lot of blood when they first begin to grow out.

 

[barbjess]

I have multiple hens that have been damaged in the last few weeks by a rooster that just started mounting select hens all the time and is extremely rough. He now spends his days with the ducks in another pen. The back of one hen has an area about 2 by 4 completely bald but the skin is not broken and nothing is infected so I am just doing the watch and wait routine. The chickens have not been through their first molt yet (they are almost 10 months old) . Will any feathers grow back on my hen before the molting.