Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: Cal. on November 06, 2021, 18:25
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Hi, I have two hens who have lost all their feathers on their breast. One of them has a permanent pendulous crop all year round and so I chalked the loss of feathers on her breast down to her crop being stretched so much. However, the other one has only recently lost all her feathers on her breast and the skin exposed looks quite red and sore. She doesn’t have any problems with her crop but has recently gone through a moult yet all her feathers have come back besides those on her breast. I treat the coop heavily with mite spray and DE. I was just wondering if this sounded like anything familiar to anybody here? She appears healthy in herself but as I say I’m quite worried that the skin looks quite sore.
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Is she broody? They will pluck their own breast feathers to make a warm spot next to their skin for sitting on eggs.
Other reasons could be feather mites on her rather than red mites in the coop. You need to check her over for them. Or possibly feather pecking by another bird. Best bet would be to spray the sore looking area with antiseptic purple spray as red attracts pecking.