what is this???

[6henslvr]

Ok, my girls are a little over a year old now and have not molted yet. A couple weeks ago they started losing feathers only on their bottoms. So i just thought it was molting. When i read into it though they said when chickens are molting they will stop laying eggs , and mine are still laying great, and no feathers have grown back yet. What is this?!?! i checked for mites but don't see anything and i use parasite powder in the summer time. i love my chicks and they are so sweet i don't wan't anything to be wrong with them. Please help me if you know what this is. thank you! -Anna

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Without looking at your chickens backsides it is hard to say.

Read up on all the external pest that affect chickens. The following list is not definitive but it is a step in the right direction to get you started.
some common names for mites may be repeated:

Common Chicken Mites
Red Chicken Mites
Gray Chicken Mites
Northern Chicken Mites
Depluming Mites
Black Mites
Scaly Leg Mites
Feather Mites

Then there are the lice associated with chickens. Mites belong to the arachnid family, that is spiders and they all have 8 legs except when the life cycle of the mite in question only has 6 legs. Lice all have 6 legs and they are insects. Lice also (usually) only lay their eggs on the bird and cannot live off its host. Some mites (Common Chicken Mites) may live for months and months without a host to feed on.

Also common chicken mites only spend from 8 to 12 hours a day sucking your chickens life blood while some lice species feed on your chickens' skin and flesh 24/7 and also feed on pooling blood coming from the lice's feeding sights.

Is there any redness associated with the feather loss?

If so sprinkle or dust your birds with Sevin 5% garden dust.

You also need to spray a Pyrethrum insecticide on the roost, and coop frame. An alternative method is to paint the coop frame and roost with used motor oil mixed with Pyrethrum at the recommended rate for a full body dip. Pyrethrum is safe to use on any animal with a back bone or spine. The motor oil carries the Pyrethrum into the cracks and crannies and keeps it there while it preforms a triple whammy on the common chicken mite. First the Pyrethrum kills mites on contact, second the Pyrethrum is a fine mite repellant, third the Pyrethrum impregnated oil suffocates any mites or lice as well as killing un-hatched mite eggs hiding in the coop frame and cracks. If you're still not sure about Pyrethrum remember it is the same pesticide used in creams for use on human infants who have scabies, a human form of the chickens' scaly leg mite, and this body cream is a 10% Pyrethrum formulation at that.

 

[6henslvr]

Thank you so much! I checked really good again today and am noticing it is really only one of my chickens with the feather loss now. the other ones seem to be okay now. i hadn't noticed the feathers growing in or anything :/ well my one chicken that has the feather loss doesn't seem to be red or bloody at all. There are no signs of mites that i can see with my own eyes. I put garden and poultry dust on them and around the coop/in it. they are acting fine and there is no scratching or anything. thank you for all the advice i will check into the mites more!!! do you think the garden and poultry dust works as good as the seven 5% garden dust? could they be molting and just still producing eggs at the same time or is that impossible?