Multiple Chickens Losing Feathers- I Think My Flock's Dynamic Isn't Working Anymore, What Should I Do?

[Disintegration]

I haven't been active on the forum for a while, but I'm back now because I need advice.

All my chickens have been doing relatively well with no issues until now. Nothing has changed, with the same birds, a bantam rooster, 3 hens, and a standard sized rooster. This was a really odd flock dynamic with 2 roosters, and I knew it wouldn't last for very long. Issues just started happening now.



For the longest time, my bantam rooster, Simba, was the dominant bird in the pecking order. Out of my two roosters, he's the only one that crowed for the longest time. My large fowl rooster, Atticus, was at the very bottom of the pecking order, he was (and still is) very shy and docile. About a couple weeks ago, Atticus finally started crowing and mating with hens (keep in mind they're just over 8 months old at this point), so I've been keeping an eye out to see for any potential issues. Then I noticed Atticus had started losing patches of feathers on the sides of his neck, and all of his feathers were extremely messy and frazzled-looking. He's started getting multiple bald spots. I started treating him with no-pick lotion, but the problem didn't really stop, his feathers havent gone away, they're very messy and he has chunks of feathers missing everywhere. Then, I noticed my hens have started losing feathers too. Specifically on the sides of their neck, and one of them is losing feathers on her back, so shes probably being over-mated.

So overall, multiple chickens have started losing feathers right after my standard sized rooster started crowing and acting like a rooster. I'm sure its because of the tension between the two roosters. What do I do now? How do I go about separating them? I don't have another flock I could move my Atticus to, so he would probably have to go to a new home :[

 

[McChooky]

Keeping too many roosters leads to abuse of the hens, causes injuries in the flock, increases stress and lowers egg production. It also causes a decrease in immunity.

 

[Disintegration]

Keeping too many roosters leads to abuse of the hens, causes injuries in the flock, increases stress and lowers egg production. It also causes a decrease in immunity.

I know this, which is why I'm so concerned about the situation. I just don't know what to do about it from here. I don't have a place to keep another rooster permanantly, but I'm really attached to both of them.

 

[McChooky]

I know this, which is why I'm so concerned about the situation. I just don't know what to do about it from here. I don't have a place to keep another rooster permanantly, but I'm really attached to both of them.

If you can't get rid of one of the roosters you can try adding more hens but Integrating more hens into the flock takes time .They'll have to be introduced gradually so the flock accepts them.You can split the run in half and separate the roosters and the flock.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Photos of Atticus and the girls?

Feathers missing from the side of the neck could be from feather picking. Look them all over for lice/mites.

How much space do you have in your coop/run?

 

[Disintegration]

Photos of Atticus and the girls?

Feathers missing from the side of the neck could be from feather picking. Look them all over for lice/mites.

How much space do you have in your coop/run?

I've looked everywhere for lice or mites, they dont seem to have anything.

Its a total of 4 standard sized birds and one bantam. They have a deerblind for a coop (pretty sure its 12 feet by 7 feet) and a dog kennel for a run that is 7.5 by 7.5 feet. I'm working on trying to give them more space outside, because I know run space is sortof tight, but I'm a teenager without my own mode of transport or a job, so, getting new run supplies and other things goes through my parents. We're talking about putting up fencing so they can have large amounts of space to roam during the day.

I'm at my mom's house right now, I can get photos Monday. I thought I had some recent ones to show the feather loss in my camera roll, but I can't find them.

 

[Disintegration]

Photos of Atticus and the girls?

Feathers missing from the side of the neck could be from feather picking. Look them all over for lice/mites.

How much space do you have in your coop/run?

Finally remembered to actually post the photos.

The spots are purple-ish because of no-pick lotion I put on them to get them to stop picking at eachother.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Feather plucking.
Watch the hens, they are likely plucking at him and he's letting them.

You still want to check for lice/mites. Go out after dark and check with a headlamp.

 

[Disintegration]

Feather plucking.
Watch the hens, they are likely plucking at him and he's letting them.

You still want to check for lice/mites. Go out after dark and check with a headlamp.

I've already checked for lice and mites, I haven't seen any.

Atticus' behavior has definitely gotten more aggressive over the past few days to the point where I can't get into the chicken coop anymore. He guards the door and doesn't let me in, and attacks me anytime I step foot into the coop, to the point where I can't get in to get eggs, clean, etc.. So I'm going to try rehoming him. (I want to do anything it takes to avoid culling him for now, since he's just doing his job as a protective rooster.) I'm 100% sure that everything going is because the flock's dynamic isn't healthy with two roosters.

 

[sourland]

It really looks as if your flock has started feather pecking/plucking. I would guess that it is caused by winter boredom and is coincidental to Atticus' crowing.