Two out of Six hens red scabby featherless vent

[obi wan henobi]

Hello thanks for reading ! About 4 weeks ago we introduced two new girls, a welsummer and an araucana. We noticed a drop in egg production from our existing four. We put it down to stress of hosting the newcomers.

However last week I noticed one of the originals had a dirty vent. Upon closer inspection the area was missing feathers and was inflamed. I treated it (and all other hens + their home) for lice. It's now been a week since that treatment and we are still only get 1 hen worth of eggs and I've noticed a second chicken has the same issue (she may have had it earlier).

The other four (two originals, two new) seem to be unaffected. I haven't observed any pecking.

Does anybody know what the issue might be ?

 

[Myrshine]

since they are new members of the flock, could they be getting picked on? Sometimes the ones higher in the pecking order will peck at the lower leveled ones, causing injuries. Since there’s blood (or it looks to be like it), I’m believing that they’re being picked on or your other birds many be missing something in their diet, causing cannibalism. Normally that means that they’re not getting enough protein in their diet. I would separate the injured ones in a small dog kennel and leave it in the run area with the newbies in it for about a week.

 

[obi wan henobi]

since they are new members of the flock, could they be getting picked on? Sometimes the ones higher in the pecking order will peck at the lower leveled ones, causing injuries. Since there’s blood (or it looks to be like it), I’m believing that they’re being picked on or your other birds many be missing something in their diet, causing cannibalism. Normally that means that they’re not getting enough protein in their diet. I would separate the injured ones in a small dog kennel and leave it in the run area with the newbies in it for about a week.

The affected ones are old ones (not old in age, but not the newly added ones). I guess it's possible that they are being pecked when I'm not watching. But this white one in particular was one of the meaner ladies to the new members. I will separate them just to be sure. Thank you for your response.