Stressed chickens ?

[Artic Chick]

I have 5 barred rocks. They are 18 months old. By now they should be laying 5 eggs a day, i usually get 3, sometimes 4. Ive noticed some are losing feathers. One in particular has lost quite a few from her chest and she is smaller than the others. The other 4 seem to be picking on her, which they never did before. I have tried picking them up to look for mites or lice but was only able to get one, and her vent looked ok. I looked for blood on the roosts but none. I thoroughly cleanned out coop and run, put in DE and new straw. I also put DE in dust bath and tried with no success to put on the girls. Them seem to be eating ok, although crackles were getting into the run and coop and eating their food for about a week before that. I went through twice tge amount of food. We have sinced put netting all around the coop and they cant get it. I did notice two morning in a row after coop was cleanned their was no poop in it. This and low egg produced concerns me. Any ideas whats going on with them.

 

[swamphiker]

Chickens usually get picked on when the flock is stressed or sometimes if the chicken getting picked on appears to be injured (they are ruthless little dinosaurs). Some things to consider:
-How much room do your chickens have in their run and their coop? Overcrowding can be a major cause of stress.
-Are temperatures comfortable in your coop and run? High temps can negatively impact egg production

 

[Artic Chick]

Chickens usually get picked on when the flock is stressed or sometimes if the chicken getting picked on appears to be injured (they are ruthless little dinosaurs). Some things to consider:
-How much room do your chickens have in their run and their coop? Overcrowding can be a major cause of stress.
-Are temperatures comfortable in your coop and run? High temps can negatively impact egg production

 

[Artic Chick]

They have lots of room in the coop, i had them over our cold winter and they seem to be fine in the coop. They were out in the runs most days though. The run is quite ,large too. I think maybe its me thats stressed, lol i guess. I have the doors and windows in the coop open all day to air out and our temperatures here havent been that hot yet. Im stumped. But i do feel better about my little " dinasaur" chicken...thank you for your reply. Good things to consider

 

[swamphiker]

Best of luck! Another thing I have heard can help is to keep the flock in a couple of separate groups for a few weeks and then reintroducing them so that they re-establish a new and hopefully different pecking order once they are all back together. I haven't personally done this though, so I can't really speak to how effective it might be.