My hen Tweety she is the smallest hen and she just started laying like a week or two ago. She is loosing lots of feathers on her butt and at one time it looked like they were growing back but it was also sort of bloody but yesterday I went out to collect eggs and I picked her up and all the feathers that were growing back are gone agian! I dont know whats going on but she is always really fluffed up and she is always standing on one leg. (we call her a bowling ball) I have no clue if that has anything to do with it but I just wanted to put that in just in case. Does anyone know what could be happening to her?
My hens lossing feathers! :[
I suspect she is being picked on by other hens. At first I suspected just molting (hens lose their feathers 2 times a year - not all of them but a lot of them) and they grow in new ones. But if her rear end was bloody that means other hens were picking on her and that would explain the new feathers being gone too. Also likely because she is the smallest hen so might be easier to pick on. I would suggest getting Rooster Booster Anti-Pick lotion or something similar, or giving her separate housing for a while. If they pull the feathers out from the base, then they will not grow back until the next time she molts naturally. Plus, once the butt is bloody, that attracts the other hens and they will continue to peck at it.
oh:[ Ok I jope they will stop because she is the nicest chicken out of all of them and she lets me hold her anytime I want. She isnt even a year old so I dont know if she is molting already but who knows she has been having trouble because she laid a double yoker and then she didnt lay for a long time then she did agian and the egg was really bloody. I hope that she will be ok:[ Thanks for the help I will tell my mom. off to bed and then school tomorrow feel free to write to me tonight I will check them in the morning. Bye
Dominique
Probably the egg was too big for her vent size and it tore a little bit when it came out. That can happen sometimes. You should probably also check her for mites or lice. Sometimes they can be around a hen's vent and they are tiny but you can see them if you look. They will be little brown or black crawling bugs. If they have been biting her, that can also make her bloody there. But I suspect the egg size was the problem.
It is more common for young hens to lay double yolkers because their body is still getting used to the new habit of laying eggs.
The fact that she is so nice and she lets you pick her up kind of makes me think I am right about them picking on her because usually hens that let you pick them up are more submissive and will let the other hens pick on them. The ones that run away from you or peck at you are more aggressive and will try to pick at the other hens if they get nasty. So the nice ones are usually the ones that get picked on, which is too bad, because they are my favorites!
Dominique you may have to move your little hen if she is alot smaller than the others. Like Claire said if shes kind of shy and then they could be picking on her.
If you can move her it would be a good idea to do that at least till her feathers grow back.
I agree, move her at least till feathers grow back. If the chickens are pecking and draw blood they will peck her to death. Seems like once they draw blood they really go after it.
Smedgekles I know from experience this past spring i hatched out 15 modern game bantams.
They were about 4 weeks old and i hadn't had any picking then one day i came home and one was dead.
The others had pecked him to death a few days later i caught one of the hens pecking away at a roo.
I took care of her and didn't have anymore problems.