Newtoraisingchicks
In the Brooder
- Aug 30, 2023
- 12
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I have one hen who is missing a lot of feathers. Looks like they are broken off in patches on various areas of her body. Is she molting? Or is she being bullied and pecked at? She is about 16 months old. I have never noticed her or any of my hens molting before. She is the only one missing feathers. I have one other hen her age, 2 roosters, and 16 younglings (about 12 weeks old). They were all moved into a new coop and run within the past month. The second rooster was introduced a couple of weeks ago. Our first main rooster is kind of a bully and was pretty mean to the new guy at first. They get along ok now but everyone seems to be scared of the mean rooster. Including the humans to be honest. He sometimes gets aggressive with us and attacks leaving bruises and scrapes. My two adult hens seem to fight somewhat over who is the main hen and who gets the main roosters attention. I'm worried that there is fighting/bullying going on in the coop at night and if one or more of the other chickens (other hen, rooster?) are pecking at the hen causing the broken/missing feathers. I have also noticed the other hen having some dark dirty spots on her feathers, kind of looks like she got splashed with something. Wondering if it could be blood from her attacking the injured hen or something. I haven't seen anyone be aggressive towards the injured hen but I wonder if it's happening at night. She is acting much more afraid and defensive than usual towards me and seemed in pain when I held her. I don't see any bugs on her so I don't think its mites. I have separated her from the others for now. What do you think is going on?