Single hen

[Chickens@61]

holly, our ross lohmann hybrid began looking a bit 'raggy' a couple of weeks ago with lots of white on show amongst her lovely brown feathers.

 

she is laying, eating & behaving as normal - however today i have noticed some almost bald patches on her neck & breast (you can see some pink skin).

 

i have checked her for lice and i can't see anything. i am wondering if this is a molt, or something more sinister? she is around 1 year old.

 

any advice appreciated

[Cinnamon]

Funnily enough my Sweet pea, who is a white star has the same thing, plus the feathers that are there look a bit sort of wet or greasy

 

I will move this to the clinic anyhow, where hopefully one of our chicken health experts will see it

[westleigh]

Hi could it be that another chook is feather pecking? i have a problem with this at the moment

[Chickens@61]

i wondered if another of the hens i pecking her, but i have not seen any evidence of this

 

it looks like more feathers are gone today, i wonder if she could be doing it to herself?

[Christian]

She could be moulting? The white patches could be new feathers growing through. You should start to see small quills poking through soon.

[Egluntyne]

I agree...it sounds like a mini moult.

[Hen Watch]

My Miss Pepperpot lost her neck feathers only late Summer but didn't moult anywhere else. I was paranoid she had lice, but she didn't and it took a while, but the feathers grew back on the neck ok. So I assumed a mini-moult. Then in October 1 gingernut lost the feathers on the very top of her head but no where else, they grew back really quickly.

 

I've had mine almost 2 years now and none of them have had a complete moult.... I expect they will though at some point.....

[PurpleTree]

I posted about one of my Black Rocks about a week ago. Squeak started preening and pulling at the feathers on her chest/base of her neck, and I also noticed one of my other girls, Mash, having a pull at Squeak's feathers - just in this one area. I can't see anything on her, and when they're out free ranging she doesn't touch this area. If it was down to nasties wouldn't she be preening all over all the time? She's been doing it for a few weeks now, so I assume if it was nasties they would've spread to the other two by now, but they're not showing any signs of over-preening. I'm wondering if it's boredom when she's in the run? Any comments would be appreciated. I've put a pic of her on my blog http://welshpurpletree.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/more-views-from-the-kitchen-window/

[LJ's Chooks]

We have the same issue, they have all had a double treatment of Xeno, and i cant see anything, but Maisy has bald patches on her wings... I'm not sure what is going on. She had a moult in the autumn, but nothing like this.... Fingers crossed that's what it is