Upside down Hen with bald belly

[1littlefarmer]

So I just opened my nesting boxes to check for eggs and I found one of my two year old Black Australorps upside down in the nesting box. It scared me at first because it looked like she was headless (it was her vent sticking up). She hopped up when I touched her and behaved "normally" but I picked her up to check her for signs of being sick, She had no signs of lice or mites on her, I've seen no worms in any of the droppings. She is, however, missing just about all of her feathers on her underside from her chest to her vent and the skin below her vent is very red. Also, the color of her feathers on the lower half of her body have gone from being black to a light brown... I don't know how well she's laying, all my girls seem to have dropped in production as of late.

Any ideas?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[1littlefarmer]

Bump...

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

If the skin is excessively red, treat her for mites. You do not mention a breed, but broody hens tend to lose many to most of the feathers on their bellies.

 

[sgtmom52]

Is she staying in the nest box and "growling" or fluffing up when you get near? If she is, along with the bald belly means she is broody and wants to hatch some babies!

 

[azhenhouse]

I was thinking broody hen too.

 

[1littlefarmer]

She's a Black Australorp and I'm pretty sure she's not broody. I have one of those right now, too. While I didn't see any, I'm leaning toward the mites, too. Her skin is pretty red and she's just looking worn out.

Any thoughts as to why she might have been on her back in the nesting box?

 

[Missouri Chicken Chick]

I had the same experience and realized my hen was trying to take a dust bath in the nesting box. I got some ashes from my fireplace and placed them in a box lid inside the coop. Once she figured out what it was, she was in "hen heaven." She rolled around in that box for probably 30 minutes. If she has mites, that will also cause them to do whatever they can to stop the irritation.