It sounds like feather picking to me, there is some lotion called "pick no more" by rooster booster you can apply to the bare areas that does help. You should also check for any parasites too.

I bought the lotion online, if you do a search it should come up, it's all natural, kind of labor intensive as you need to re-apply every couple of days but worth it if it works.

-Sheila

Sounds like typical rooster damage.

They bite hens neck while treading them. Their toe nails pull off the feathers on their backs and scratch the skin.

If you have a rooster and this is the problem, take him away from the hens. The feathers will grow back eventually.
Roosters have their favorites, he likes those 3 more than the 4th girl, lucky her!

M

they might have a skin desase

I am worried more about a skin desease or parasites. I have no roosters. Out of 17 hens there are about 6 of them that are showing the same loss of feathers. It's not so much around the vents but below and to their bellies. And on their necks. I think they are pulling out the feathers themselfs. I have watched them more lately and am seeing no pecking from the other hens but they seem to itch. Some of the feathers are broken off and others are pulled right out. Some show very red skin now and others not so red. I'm thinking maybe mites or lice? I have never has this issue before and just don't know. I have read about an insecticide called permethrin. I am thinking about trying that. Can anyone tell me if the powers or sprays work better. Doing 17 hens is going to be fun enough :) Thank you. Stacy

I saw the title of this post and
I thought it was gonna be about southern plumbers.

Pooh Bear

Yep, me too! Its funny cause the rednecks up the road have really big rumps, even bigger than their bellies!. Next road over some rednecks moved in and they have flat azzes, I dont know what they sit on! They are kind of skinny all over really, I might run them over some left over Ivomec, could be wormy?

FEATHER PICKING and feather eating can be a nutritional deficiency! Are they getting a balanced feed ration? Are they over crowded? This can cause it too. If you can't see any mites or creepycrawlies, go into the coop at night with a flashlight. See if there are any bugs on them at night, some sort of bug attacks them at night and not during the day.

Unless the chickens are fed a really POOR feed, I would argue the nutrition deficiency all day long. its usually a learned bad habit, most of the time attributed to crowded conditions, can be brought on by other forms of stress also. Same with egg eating.

I think you have several possible issues going on here, you could have one, all or any combination.

First, make sure the cause isn't due to mites. Grab your girls and inspect them well. Dig down to the base of the feather shafts, where mites hang out and lay eggs. Check their heads, undercarriage, between their legs and the area between their vents and legs. Get intimate and highly personal, offend their dignity. Only way to be sure! If you suspect mites, spray or dust them ALL thoroughly, including their coop, roosts and nests. I've gone to using mite/lice spray over anything else, as it's much easier and less messy to use. I use Adam's Flea & Tick Mist with ICR (Insect Growth Regulator, it kills hatching eggs for 3 months!). I have learned with my flock, in our area, that I must routinely worm and spray my birds twice a year. I use Equimax which is 1.87% Ivermectin and 14.03% Praziquantel. It's a broad-spectrum paste wormer for horses that kills nearly everything. I use the wormer and the Adams spray together. Instruction on how I use it are on my chicken info page, here:

http://home.earthlink.net/~velvetsparrow/VSChickHealth.htm

Since there is no roo, there is also the old boredom/overcrowding bugaboo. Make sure they have a good, balanced diet with fresh green matter (grass or fresh greens like spinach or mustard greens), protein in the form of live bugs (either found by foraging or you buy some live mealworms) and dirt to dust bathe (dust bathing is vital for chickens) in.

The 'Let's all pick what's-her-name (or ourselves)' game can start out of boredom or overcrowding and continue as a learned bad habit. Give them something else to peck, like raw corn on the cob or a cabbage on a string (hang it high enough to avoid accidental strangulation but so they can still reach it, hanging it on a string allows it to swing around and be a challenge). Both provide food that takes time to eat, something to satisfy the pecking instinct, and entertainment that lasts for a while.

Another thing to provide is vitamin E to help the itchy skin. Take one vitamin E capsule (the ones for humans, get it at the grocery store) and poke a hole in one end. Grab a chicken, open it's beak and squirt the oil in. Do this once or twice a week for a few weeks and it should help them stop picking themselves due to itchy, exposed skin and new feathers.

Like I said, it sounds like more than one issue going on here, so if you try everything I suggest you should be able to alleviate a lot of it, if not solve it totally.

Good luck! :)

Velvet ~:>

Stacy, if you want to know why your chickens are plucking each others feathers, it's because they like salt, and everyone knows that blood has salt in it. My chikens are the same way. In winter, when we keep them in their coop, they pluck each other till they bleed. Then they lick the blood.

It's nothing to worry about. It's when they're completely fetherless is the problem.

Creams, lotions and powders don't work. Believe me, we've tried. It's just natural. Sooner or later they'll quit. It took my chickens 3 weeks before they quit plucking each other. They don't do it anymore now.

And parasites, mites and skin disease are not REALLY issues with chickens, so it's nothing to worry about.

But I still don't think they are plucking each other. They have lost feathers in exactly the same place. The neck and under the vent up to the stomach. If it was mainly tail feathers or just around the vent....oh well. It remains a mystery. I have sprayed once for mite/parasites. I need to spray again in the next day or two. I will take the advice to get them something for boredom. I do throw them greens thou not every day. They are fed a good layer feed. I also get a multi purpose feed with corn in it to throw outside for them to scratch in. But that is not their main food. When I sit and watch them they all seem to be getting along good. Nobody is bleeding and nobody seems to be picking at anybody else. I appreciate all your advice.
Stacy

salt is poisonous to chickens so don't add any more than is in the prepared feed.

parasites CAN be devastating in a flock, mites dont cause feather loss but they can kill a bird if heavily infested.

try tossing in a block of suet, like the stuff for wild birds? or a head of cabbage?
I am always amazed at all of the problems folks have with chickens, after 45 years of breeding chickens and other feathered species, I just dont get all the problems others seem to have?? I am at a loss sometimes and have to resort to looking things up .

Not sure if you mentioned this or not, but are they allowed to run around outside in the yard?

When chickens are exposed to sun and they don't have feathers, their skin turns red. I have some naked necks/turkens (AKA Transylvania naked necks) that have red skin where they don't have feathers. Maybe the feathers are rubbed off somehow and the red is from the exposed skin if they are in sunlight.

Or maybe you have turkens!

Make sure that they are not over crowded. That can cause picking.