[Beano]

A couple of our chickens are losing feathers around their faces and necks. They are in their second year and have not had a moult yet. They are both still laying and look perfectly healthy with red combs. I would have thought that if they were going through a moult that I would have come accross the feathers in the coop. It also seems early in the year for it to happen. I have checked for red mite. We did have a small infestation a few months ago and I cannot find any more in the coop.
Does anyone have any ideas what's going on?

[Sassy]

It is worth having a careful check for any other passengers remembering they can be very tiny. Is the skin underneath healthy and pale pink? Are they plucking each others feathers (sometimes they can eat them). Do you have a cockerel? If so he may be the culprit. I think it is too early in the year for a moult but others on here have experienced this. Hope this helps

[barley]

might be worth giving them a dusting of mite and lice powder ( most chicken suppliers sell it )

you can't see them with the naked eye always so dust as a matter of precaution

check scales are not lifting on legs to as mites can cause problems there too

[Beano]

Thanks both for the replies. I had a feeling I was missing something like lice or mites. I've been putting the mite powder in their dust bath, and in the coop and on the perches. They dust themselves with it in the dust bath but obviously that's not enough. Funnily enough, the two that roost are fine. It's the two that like to sleep on the floor or in the nest boxes that are aflicted. I'll have a good look at them tonight.

[barley]

I use a cotton bud to apply mite powder to heads

dip it in powder and just roll it under the feathers - try not to get to close to the eyes

[Sassy]

I would treat all four. If two have visitors it is likely the others will have, and if not now as the others are recovering starting a never-ending cycle of infestation. Do check for anything lurking in the nest box bedding!