Scared hen losing tail feathers

[HappyBoks]

Hi all! My 9 month old speckled Sussex hen just seemed to have lost her large tail feathers overnight and now seems to be shocked. Her vent area has a few plain feather shafts but no blood and she is not losing any feathers anywhere else. I'll check for mites tonight, but our other hens seem to be alright.

 

[azygous]

It doesn't require much force to remove tail feathers from a chicken. One time I wasn't paying attention after checking a nest box that happened to have a hen in it. Later, I went to collect the eggs and found I had shut her tail in the door to the nest box. All her tail feathers were lying on top of the eggs.

I suggest you look for evidence of a predator nabbing her tail through the run fence.

 

[sourland]

What happened to scare her ? She may indeed be in shock.

 

[HappyBoks]

Update: Tonight she is not roosting with the other girls and is instead standing/sitting inside one of the nesting boxes.

It could have been a predator, but it looks as if a lot of the down feathers near her vent have fallen off as well. Looking at her now it seems almost as if she doesn't have a tail. I found some of the tail feathers inside the coop as well.

 

[aart]

Later, I went to collect the eggs and found I had shut her tail in the door to the nest box. All her tail feathers were lying on top of the eggs.

Have inadvertently yanked tail feathers trying to catch them.

 

[kiwi-chick]

hen pecked perhaps, is she low in the pecking order?