Why did my 3-4 week old chicks lost some of their feathers?

[Luckybaby]

Today, I saw one of my chicks, loss some of it's feathers. All(8 chicks) of them doesn't have any significant loss of feather last night. I saw it's feathers near the cage, and it's looks like it is cut or pluck. I checked for mites and lice, and I didn't see any. When I went to the feed store two days ago, one golden laced cochin have the same problem as my chick, and some of the chicks have a significant loss of feathers. However, I think that happened several days before I went there two days ago. I am feeding them medicated broiler starter feed and I changed their water 2x a day. I didn't let them out of their cage since about 7 days, except the step mom(she adopted them about a week ago), when I want to treat it's eye worm problems, since the yard is infected with eye worm eggs and carriers(cockroaches of the eye worm larvae, and their step mom can't protect them from other adult chickens(it's pecking order is on bottom 33 percentile on all of my adult chickens).

The chick on the picture below is a golden laced cochin and it is probably a cockerel.




I only noticed that the chicks that I bought 2 days ago, have feathers missing on their wings. What could be the reason why they loss their feathers? They are both barred cochin chicks.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

They go through mini molts as they get their adult plumage. It could be that.

 

[Luckybaby]

They go through mini molts as they get their adult plumage. It could be that.

None of my chickens have that kind of problem before, but all of them have no feathers on the feet, or they have few feathers on their feet(mix breed). I have never heard of mini molts before, and never see it happen on 3-4 week old chicks. I don't know much about chicken molting though.

* I read that mini molts can happen from 6 days old to 4 week old chicks.
* Maybe I didn't notice them molting at that age, since I didn't see a lot of their feather remove up to the point that I can see a lot of the skin is exposed.

 

[Luckybaby]

Two more chicks have the same problem. One chick look fine this morning, but 3 hours after I last checked it, it loss about the same amount of feathers and on the same spot as the chick above. Only my golden laced cochin chicks have the same problem. Two white cochins and 3 mille fleur d'uccle which are about the same age as my golden laced cochiin doesn't have the same problem as my golden laced. However today, I saw two sand grain size spot of blood on my white cochin, but it is on the feather of it's wings. Could it be that some chickens are plucking their feathers out?

 

[Luckybaby]

Few hours after I put the 2 new chicks(barred cochin) inside the cage, one of the chicks started plucking their feathers out, especially the big one. Another one started plucking their feathers, but only the small feathers. I put both of them(the chicks that pluck feathers) on a brooder for the night. This morning, my mom put them back on their cage, and then at least one chick plucked the barred cochin chicks feathers in the same area as the picture of my golden laced cochin above. My mom applied betadine on the bloody areas. It only started happening about a week after I put them on the cage. The cage is really small, so I think it is overcrowded. Their food is medicated broiler starter, so I don't think protein deficiency is an issue.

I am having a dilemma right now, whether I should free range them, or put them on a considerably bigger cage. If I free range them, then they are extremely likely to get eye worms and tape worms. On the other hand, they will be significantly less happy if I just put them on a bigger cage, and I have to give them more food. The eye drops for eye worms, might work for few months, but if I keep on using it, then they might build resistance to it. I don't even want one worm that is not killed by drugs because it is resistant to it, to live in my chicken's eye for at least a few years. Is one eye worm detrimental to a chicken's vision?

 

[Luckybaby]

I put all 10 of the chicks and their mother on a cage that has an area of 150 to 180 square feet. I didn't see the other one doing it, but the other one still keeps on doing it. Two of my barred cochins have loss more feathers today. Is he going to stop doing it?