Chicken boarders

[Mollie333]

Effy ued to sleep in the nesting boxes, so she got some bold patches. Recently she went broody . we tried emptying the nestin box and letting her nest on wood (uncomfy?) but she just pancaked there. We had to put the shavings back cause of the other girls, and it wasn't working, we keep turfing her out but since we have 4 other girls that lay in there, we have to keep it open. We don't have a broody cage, either. She eats and drinks fine, but i'm worried cause shes plucking out her OWN feathers.. Leaving herself red raw.

[foreveryoung]

Hi I think its just a "broody" thing. Im sure one of the others will be along soon....

[madchickenlady]

Broodies do this She's lining her nest with her feathers, and also making sure that her body heat can get directly to any eggs/chicks. Two of mine are currently bald

[karlotta]

I've got 4 broody bantams (2 pekins, a brahma and an appenzeller x) plus a LF Maran and 5 naked tums. Perfectly normal for a broody!

[cavysqueak]

We've had two bald chickens since last summer! We think that they were too warm during the really hot patch of weather and they must have plucked their own feathers. Then they didn't moult in autumn either, so they spent the whole winter with bald bellies!

 

Then one hen went broodie as well. She plucked out more feathers and made herself red raw. I rubbed vaseline on to the bad patches to try to stop or discourage her & it seemed to work. Then she stopped being broody, so her skin is back to normal now. Lets hope it stays that way! Good luck.

[Mollie333]

Thanks everyone.

Its red so i rubbed some skin-eze on it (for small animals and birds).

Will the feathers grow back?

[Christian]

Yep, they should grow back eventually.

[Millie-Annie]

Just in time for her to pull them out again

[Forge Cottage]

Ow, poor thing...

 

Our lovely soft Peggy often slept in the nestbox and got a bald red tummy. Sadly she died prematurely last week. We think it was sour crop and tried all sorts, but she became weak very quickly and died in my arms (sorry, that's another sad story ).

 

So that left a bed vacancy and Gertie has taken over in the nestbox. She already seems to be thinning out under there... But she has a habit of picking her own feathers, so we are not sure it is the nestbox yet.

 

Yes, broody females of many bird species pull out their own tummy feathers to apply direct heat to eggs, so that is always a possibility.