Chickennewbie72
In the Brooder
- Jan 8, 2022
- 17
- 13
- 36
We cannot figure out what's wrong with our flock. Several months ago a couple of our hens started losing feathers on their backs. We had extra roosters who had just matured at the time, so we thought it was from overmating (3 roosters to only 10 laying hens). We got rid of the extra roosters and added a new batch of hens so we now have 2 roos and 17 laying hens. But more hens started losing back feathers. We suddenly realized it might be lice. So we did a thorough clean out of the coop and treated all the chickens for lice. But we have checked all the hens multiple times and have never seen any lice or eggs. They also don't appear to be itchy or pluck their own feathers. Then all the hens stopped laying. Out of 17 hens, we are getting 3-4 eggs per day. We also noticed our younger hens have not lost their feathers, but all our year+ hens are losing them. So we went back to the over-mating theory and separated all roosters. But now we've noticed our 4 month old chickens all have frayed feathers. They're not losing them, but they look awful! What in the world is causing this?? I will try to post pics.