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.