Two chickens not growing feathers back

[remist17]

I have two hens that seem not to ever grow their feathers back. Their back and but is completely without feathers. The skin looks sunburnt. I do run a rooster with them and he is moderately aggressive.

I have a total of 8 hens and only get 1 egg a day now. What can I do to first get the feathers to grow back and second increase production.

1- I feed Tractor supply layer
2- I supplement with vitamins in the water
3- I feed sunflowers with scratch grain
4- I have not wormed the chickens about 2 years old
5- I do not see mights on them

Is the feather loss from the rooster doing his business? I have no issue removing him
Is the egg production tied to the loss of light? I just put a light in the coup. Coming on at 330 in the morning

Thanks

 

[artravler]

Hello- It sounds like the rooster is keeping the feathers wore off your hens. I would probably remove the rooster from the hens.

 

[remist17]

do you think he will be ok by himself in PA winters?
I can either make a new pen for him or get rid of him.

I am still back and forth if I want to try for chicks again. but then we can just by new chicks....

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

You can put chicken saddles on them. I have 2 of my girls with them on. They are my roo's favorites. It does take 5-36hrs for them to get used to wearing them. I put them on right after sunset and put them into a nest box. One was on the roost a few hours later, the other took about 20hrs to adjust. But they now go about their day as normal. I have even taken one off of one of them, the other still has a couple of weeks of healing to go. Also increasing protein intake will quicken feather production.

 

[remist17]

I would like to know why others seem not to have this issue. Can anyone tell me if I amdoing something wrong? Is the area to small? 8 hens 1 rooster. house is 8x8 with two 8foot perches. Run is 12x 12.

I really hate to remove this rooster but he does not provide anything for me. I really do not want to loose the hens and going into winter I am concerned.

how long does it take to grow out feathers?

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

It also sounds like they are in a heavy molt. It takes about a month to grow them back(but molts can take 1-3months). Do they seem stressed or happy. If they don't seem stressed then just keep an eye on them. Do you free range them at all or do they stay in the run? Boredom could be contributing to the situation. The 144sf run seems adequate for the 90sf required for your 9 birds.

 

[remist17]

I keep them in the run/coup. No free range. I live in the mountains and there are too many foxes/dogs/coons that run around.
I try to keep some scratch grain out for them.

So do you think if the rooster rides these two hens all the time, will they grow the feathers back? I am not really a fan of putting coats on animals. The others seem to be fine (3 orph, 2 del)
Two orph are missing tail feathers....

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Since you do not free-range, are you keeping the roo for breeding? If you are not ranging or breeding, there is really no reason to keep him IMO. I would re-home him. That should really help with your situation. It sounds like he is over breeding those 2. My 2 that I had to saddle are my roo's favorite.

 

[remist17]

I dont really know why I have him. I would rather buy chicks that I know what they are how they will perform. But I like the idea of hatching my own out....
I guess I need to figure that out first. I am going to check for mites tomorrow to rule that out.