Sorry this is a really dumb question....

If the hen's feathers are worn off due to the roo overbreeding her, the hen will have a bald spot on her back. I've heard that if you put a piece of duct tape on her back it will protect until the feathers come back in.

 

Feathers are made of protein and they need extra protein in their diets when growing feathers back. It could take 1 month to 5 months to grow back. Having a good diet for the chicken is important and will speed up the feather growth.

 

Add the protein to the diet and use the duct tape. Then take pics. I wanna see the duct-taped chickens!

 

Feathers will grow back in molting season.

Wild birds (geese and ducks) molt in late summer so that they have fresh new feathers to fly south. Canada geese cannot fly in late June or early July due to the loss of the flight feathers. I found that chickens stop laying eggs and molt in the fall (sept through November). Feathers that are missing will grow back then, feathers that are broken should be pulled out to make them grow back. The molt really stops when winter hits hard.

Keep this in mind for butchering birds (especially ducks). Keeping them through the fall makes for messy butchering with half grown feathers. There's a magical time when they are ready to butcher, too late and they could be in a molt.

All birds moult sometime after the breeding season.

I read somewhere that birds can be forced to molt by withholding food and water for two days. I haven't tried it.

If you have a roo that is hard on the hens there is little you can do other than separating the roo from the hens for most of the year.

 

Dont forget to use pink duct tape , i love my pink duct tape ( or duck tape as my kids would say)