Two chickens with bare spots

[rockstar]

I have 18 chickens. One Orpie rooster has no tail feathers and one RIR with bare spots on her back near the base of her tail. Everybody else looks fine. They will all eat a feather if they can get one. I put diatamaceous earth on both chickens bare spots, but nothing changed. What's the problem with them?

 

[Judy]

Usually it's either too little protein, or too little space, which leads to boredom. There are other possibilities.

Go to Index, then FAQ, and scroll down to the links about pecking and
feather pulling.

If you'd like us to help you investigate your particular situation further, go to the sticky at the top of the emergencies forum and answer the questions here for us.

 

[rockstar]

I don't think it's space. Space requirements are met. They have an eight by sixteen run and 44 square feet of chicken house and 16 feet of roosting pole. On Layena now, scratch, oyster shell, grass weeded from the garden. plenty of zuchini, tomato and green bean trimmings. I'll try a little cat food. Only two of 18 affected. Thanks.

 

[Judy]

The usual recommendation on here is 4 sq ft per bird in the coop and 10 sq ft in the run, and those are felt to be minimums for large fowl. For 18 chickens that would be 72 sq ft of coop and 180 sq ft of run. Some of the more experienced people say this is not enough.

 

[rockstar]

I need to sell about six chickens. I've been reading the wrong articles. Thanks.

 

[Judy]

There is so much great info on here.

 

[Year of the Rooster]

The rooster could also be over mating the hen, resulting in a bald spot.

 

[oldrock]

I have 8 barred rock hens in a rather large hen house and outside run. They are about a year old and we do not have a roo. As we live in Maine they were inside more during the winter. We have about 3 hens that have bald butts. I have put DE in their dust bath area and have put sevin on them once as I thought it might be lice. Apparently it is not lice as I would think that all of them would be showing some signs of infestation by now. Outside of the bald spots on their butts they appear to be extraordinarily healthy. The bald spots occurred during the winter when they were not going out much. I just wanted to know what someone else thought about this. Thanks