White leghorn with bald neck

[trottreacle]

Just looking for some advice on my Gwen, a young white leghorn under 2 years old. Her neck feathers at the front started thinning out a few months ago, to the point now that her neck is quite bald.

Other than her neck looking quite scruffy & uncomfortable she is very happy, healthy, inquisitive, happy to be picked up, eats everything & lays lovely eggs. She runs around the garden like an olympian runner as soon as I step outside hoping for treats.

They are vermX layers pellets as their boring feed, & they get table scraps & a few handfuls of what I call "treat food" throughout the day, a mix of dried seeds, peas, corn, maize & dried calciworms. They also get free roam of the garden to scratch about so they get plenty of bugs & more recently lots of worms as I've been moving soil for the veggie patches.

She's not being bullied & all the other hens look in super good condition so I have no idea what's wrong with her.

When I inspect her neck you can see what looks like new feathers trying to come through but they never seem to amount to anything & if anything it looks worse.

I'm worried with the summer sun her skin might get burnt but I am also cautious to put anything on her neck incase it messes up the new feathers trying to get through.

A couple of weeks ago I did see her struggling to pass a poop early in the morning & she looked like she had gunky stuff around her butt but later thaat day she was back to normal.

Any advice very welcome she's a lovely sweet girl & I'd hate to think she's suffering in some way & I've been hoping her feathers would restore but no such luck

 

[sourland]

It's possible that her 'best friend' is overgrooming her to the point of feather pecking/plucking.

 

[trottreacle]

It's possible that her 'best friend' is overgrooming her to the point of feather pecking/plucking.

I don't understand?

 

[AinaWGSD]

I don't understand?

Chickens who get along well will groom each other. Sometimes they can be overzealous to the point of causing feather damage. It's not going to look like a hen being bullied because grooming is a social bonding activity, but it can sometimes have the same end result (missing feathers) as a bullying problem.

 

[trottreacle]

Chickens who get along well will groom each other. Sometimes they can be overzealous to the point of causing feather damage. It's not going to look like a hen being bullied because grooming is a social bonding activity, but it can sometimes have the same end result (missing feathers) as a bullying problem.

Ooooh thank you so much for explaining it for me. She does have a bestie so perhaps this is it.... is there anything I can do to stop it, or help