Why are my EE's losing their muffs?

[Coop de Grille]

All of my EE's are missing their muffs! I noticed it the other day with my roo and on closer examination almost all of my EE's have lost them. What is going on????


A lot of my hens are bald from the roosters' attentions, but it's not just the girls that have lost their muffs.



This guy used to have a beautiful grey beard the same color as his tail feathers.

 

[sourland]

Someone in your flock is feather plucking/eating. Watch them, and you should be able to identify the culprit/culprits. Fitting the offenders with Pinless Peepers will stop this habit. In picture # 5 it looks as if the sex link is about to snack on some feathers.

 

[Wyandottes7]

What Sourland said may very well be true. Feather picking is certainly possible. However, another possiblity is that they are beginning to molt. My birds always lose their throat feathers first, including my Easter Egger. If they are at or around 1 year of age, or have gone for a year or more without molting, this may be the cause.

 

[Coop de Grille]

I never thought of molting. A lot of my EE's are over a year old. The red roo was hatched 12/21, and the white and the black/yellow roo were hatched in January. I'm going to take a better look at all of them this weekend and see if I see any feather picking.

 

[FiddleChics]

I've got the SAME thing going on with 3 of my easter egger hens. They're only 9 months old so they're not molting... I'm gonna go on "Bully Watch" today... and see if they're being picked on!!! Thank you @sourland

 

[rosemarythyme]

I've got the SAME thing going on with 3 of my easter egger hens. They're only 9 months old so they're not molting... I'm gonna go on "Bully Watch" today... and see if they're being picked on!!!

It's very possible it's not really bullying, but more like overeager grooming. Bearded birds tend to get food in their face feathers and their flockmates can get overzealous in cleaning it off, which turns into a mix of grooming and feather eating.

Doesn't actually hurt or upset the de-bearded birds any, but they're not as pretty to look at.

 

[FiddleChics]

@rosemarythyme OH! That's a really good point - that I hadn't considered. This is my 2nd batch of hens & I'm still learning. And when I read what you wrote, I realized that I've seen them 'grooming' each other... I didn't realize they did that - so it really caught my attention. I make hot mash for them on Sundays... so maybe they are messy eaters in need of being tidied up! lol! I'd hope that this is the case rather than bullying! Yay! Thank you!

 

[rosemarythyme]

I realized that I've seen them 'grooming' each other... I didn't realize they did that - so it really caught my attention. I make hot mash for them on Sundays... so maybe they are messy eaters in need of being tidied up! lol! I'd hope that this is the case rather than bullying! Yay! Thank you!

The obvious difference between bullying and grooming is with grooming, the birds involved are standing still and relaxed - no one is getting chased down, corned, and attacked.

I feed fermented feed daily so the bearded/muffed girls tend to get food all over their faces. Also after I let them out in the yard in the afternoon, some of the birds get grass, mud, etc. on their faces so they usually do a quick grooming session afterwards to clean it all up.

 

[aart]

Have seen EE's calmly stand still while other birds are plucking the feathers their faces.
Almost didn't recognize them once they grew back after molting.