Rough Roo or Moulting Hens?

[Hayduke27]

I have a large welsummer rooster and 11 hens, only 1 of which is a bantam. All of these chickens are about 14 months old. The rooster mounts all of the hens, and doesn't seem to be over doing it. I get to observe them for most of the day, and I only really see him mounting hens in the evening. He's a gentlemen for the most part, though I do notice when he is trying to keep his balance on a hen, he holds on pretty tight to the head feathers.

This spring, 4 of the hens starting losing feathers. 2 of them are losing armpit feathers, 2 of them feathers on their heads, and 2 of them are losing feathers on their backs. Again, only 4 hens are losing feathers, and the places missing feathers are mismatched between chickens. All of the other hens are fully feathered, and don't even show signs of feather damage. Obviously, the feather loss is coming from the rooster mounting the hens. I was totally convinced that he was being a bit rough with them, and the plan was to order some hen saddles for these ladies. Just today I noticed that each of these hens, where the feathers are missing, have heavy pin feathers coming in where the bare spots are.

My question is this: when the hens are moulting, do the feathers become more fragile? Is there a chance that my rooster was not being too rough, but the hens were just delicate due to moult?

 

[roostersandhens]

Chickens don't usually moult this time of year, it is more a fall/winter thing. Are your sure they don't have mites or poultry lice?

 

[Hayduke27]

It's just a few feathers missing, in the exact points where the rooster contacts the hens. They are not actually bare, just have a couple spots with thin feathers. I don't think it's mites or anything to that effect. With hen saddles, the bare thin spots would be totally protected.