What’s going on with my girl?!

[Ncfarm828]

My girl has been losing wing feathers and now by the base of her tail. Does it look like mites? I couldn’t get close enough to her tonight without my rooster going crazy - so I took a closeup picture. Her butt feathers look a little wet too. I don’t know what’s going on. She’s otherwise is acting fine. Her one flock mate now has more feathers missing too (just not as many as her)

 

[Debbie292d]

The three top reasons for loss of feathers are molting, mites/lice, and feather picking.

Seeing the feather shafts deteriorated like that might point to depluming mites that feed on those. Whatever type of mite or lice it may be, Permethrin/garden dust will kill them. You'd dust the chickens well, being sure to get their butts and under their wings, clean the coop, and dust that too. Some folks use a nylon sock to put the powder in and pat their chickens with it. You'd need to repeat this process in a week to 10 days to get any eggs that may have been on them or in the coop that the dusting didn't kill, and now have hatched.

Otherwise, another reason for loss of feathers is feather picking. That happens usually when they're overcrowded or not getting enough protein.

 

[coach723]

My guess is that the feather damage to wings and by the tail is from the rooster mounting her. You said, "one flock mate" and "my rooster", so two hens and a roo, or one hen and a roo? If you have one or two hens and a roo, the girls are going to get beat up from him mounting. Most roo's will need about 8 - 10 hens so he can spread his attention around, rather than continuously mounting the same one or two, and that much attention could also lead to stress and injuries on them. I also see that her vent feathers look wet and dirty, so I would clean her up, see if droppings are runny or abnormal. Dirty vent feathers in hot weather and fly season can sometimes lead to flystrike, which can be very serious. If she is consistently having runny droppings then there may be an underlying cause. Drinking a lot of water when it's hot out can do it, something in the diet, internal parasites, etc.
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