When will feathers regrow?

[StormCoat]

Hi, I guess this kind of question gets asked here a lot, but here goes: I have 6 hens that are almost a year old. We had some very cold weather and snow here in SW Ohio in February, and around that time one of my two Easter Egger hens started to develop a frizzy patch of feathers on her back just above her tail. Within a couple days, it had developed into a small bald patch. Ever since I have been trying to treat it in various ways, and there have been pinfeathers showing there pretty much all along, but the feathers just don't seem to grow in, and I'm worrying that they never will. She has also developed a bald patch on her belly underneath her vent.

A few (maybe) pertinent points:

My chickens have a pretty spacious 4x6' coop with a 6x12' enclosed run. Back when the weather was cold and snowy, I tried treating her exposed skin with Pick-no-more lotion and blu-kote to try to keep the others from pecking at her. I also increased the feed protein for a little while and tried to add some things to keep the chickens from being too bored. As the weather warmed up, I built an extended fenced-in run that adds almost 150 sq ft, and they can use that most days to have some extra room. I've checked the birds repeatedly for mites and lice...I'm still pretty new to having chickens, but I don't see any evidence of that as far as I can tell. Still, I treated all of them for mites weeks ago, completely cleaned out the coop, and added fresh bedding dusted with diatomaceous earth.

I have noticed that two of the other hens also had the same frizzy kind of look on their backs and then lost some feathers, but don't seem to have been nearly as affected as this Easter Egger. It seems to me that the only other possibilities are feather picking between the birds, or a weird molt. But I got the impression that it would be unusual for my less-than-one-year birds to start molting early in the year...so that just leaves feather-picking...I have seen a couple of the birds acting bossy with the others, but I haven't witnessed anything particularly vicious, and this Easter Egger's bald patch hasn't looked bloody since this whole thing started, she just has bare skin, and the feathers don't ever seem to grow back in. Now I'm afraid she's getting sunburn from being out in the open portion of the run. I just want healthy, nice-looking chickens again. Does anyone have any advice? I attached a couple photos of her so you can see what I mean.

Thanks!

 

[azygous]

Unless you have a rooster and it's from mating damage, other hens will rake their beaks across the back of more timid hens, causing that frayed appearance. Baldness is usually from feather picking where the feathers are plucked.

If the feathers are plucked cleanly out, new feathers will soon grow in to replace them. However, feather pickers generally will pluck the pin feathers, as well, especially since they are full of juicy, tasty blood. If the pin feathers continue to be plucked, soon no more will grow until the chicken molts.

Pick-no-mor is a messy, greasy, staining, ugly concoction that doesn't work. I tried it years ago and got outraged over the cruel deception of the marketing. I've been dealing with feather picking for fourteen years, and the only thing that has ever worked, though not all the time, is pinless peepers. Feather picking is mostly a brain disorder, I've concluded. It's sort of like obsessive compulsive disorders in humans.