Roxy, my feather eating hen...

[lacrego]

My flock of 11 has one hen that eats feathers. She plucks the downy feather's off the other girls' behind and eat them! 2 of my hens are almost completely bald back there! Many of them have patches of missing feathers and I think she is the one behind it. I finally isolated her today I got tired of looking at my poor beat up flock. Anyone else with this problem? any suggestions? lack of protein? cabin fever? What's going on?
Thanks!
Leslie

 

[TimBaumann]

Yes it really sounds like your hen is the cause of those bald spots. You should still check your chicken for mites and lice though since that can also cause feather loss as well. If she really eats the feathers it is usually a sign of calcium deficiency! So you should probably get some sort of calcium supplement like oyster shell. It would also help getting some extra protein into their diet since growing new feathers required protein!
Hope this helps.
Good luck