Feather picking from pen mates. It's caused mainly by overcrowding and/or boredom. Once started it's very difficult to stop, and in severe cases can intensify to mutilation and cannibalism. There are many things to try to give them something to do to occupy their time and keep them busy with other things. A web search should give you plenty of ideas.

Do you have a rooster in with them?

They might be molting. Has egg production slowed down?

I speculated it was caused by too many roosters... we have 4. It's only a couple of the hens, the others are fine. I think the pen size is ok, but we have just built a new one & will move some of them in there once we get the roof on. Hopefully this will help + getting rid of most of the roosters.

These hens sound like they are the most popular ladies... :) You don't say how many hens you have for the 4 roos, or how much room they have to roam (or escape from the roos), but I think you have the solution in reducing the number of roos and giving them more room. You may have to isolate the featherless hens from the other girls though, once a bird has an injury or bare spot, the others sometimes will pick at it.

You can offer your birds other things to peck besides each others' fanny, such as raw corn on the cob or the good old cabbage-on-a-string thing. Both these provide entertainment and take a while to eat, plus it's good for them. :)

Velvet ~:>

Our hens had bald spots on their backs until we got rid of one of our two roosters. He was the more amourous of the two. It might be my imagination but it seems like the feathers on the hens' backs are growing back a little--it that possible?

I have 10 hens and 4 roosters. 1 rooster has about 7 of those hens as his own, but watches out for all the other hens. 2 of the roosters dont really have any of their own hens and they usually don't stay in the same coop. The youngest rooster does stay in the same coop. The coop is about 19' x 12' x 12'and theres 30 guineas in there too. they all free-range during the day. I think theres enough room in the coop for all of them, but its at its limits. I need to do something with these extra roosters... :(

claraserena, did I understand you correctly, are you asking if the feathers would grow back? because I have had about three different chickens come to me with bald spots and I assumed it was the heat that were kept in. They all grew in new feathers. I am new at this but I expected new feathers on them. One roo we had was so funny looking, when it came to us it had a big ole bald spot on its back with one long feather sticking straight up right in the middle. He was a site. but all his feathers grew back as pretty as you please.

Velvet, It's good to see you online, have you been away, I have missed your posts. did you read about my poor meat hen, I thought I had a leghorn, thats what it was sold to me as anyway L. but turns out it isn't. its purty but gigantic. and from what I understand won't live long.

CI

When the hens start to look rough theya re usually molting. It takes a couple weeks and all the feathers will grow back. Also, whenever they start to have those bald spots on their backs, if it's from the rooster mating, you might notice a little bald spot on the top of their heads too. Watch how they mate and you'll see why this happens. Reminds me of a joke...

Farmer Jones got a new roo and this guy was a real go-getter. Farmer Jones told Roo to pace himself, but Roo just kept making the rounds of all the hens until the hens were exhausted and starting to hide from him. Finally, frustrated, Roo fell down in a dead faint in the hen yard. Farmer Jones looked down at Roo and said, "I told ya to pace yourself, but you didn't and now you're dead and there's vultures flying around up there looking at you." But Roo opened one eye and told Farmer Jones, "Scram! Those pretty ladies up there are getting closer, and I don't want you to scare 'em off!"

Lots of good possible answers,,,but,,have you checked for mites?

I have chickens with bald spots too. I have 50 hens and about half of them have bald spots. I am getting about 30-45 eggs a day. How to I check if they have mites and what do you treat them with? They are hard to catch.

I have 15, 1 year old hens and 2 roosters, and all of my hens have the same bald spot on their backs. I can't see any mites on them. I am assuming that it is from my "happy" roosters, as that is all that I see them doing!!! I raised 12 more pullets this spring, they are not far from being the same size as my laying hens...when I put them out with the original hens, I found 4 dead within hours. I moved them back inside for another month, and put them back out. Within an hour and a half, I had another dead chick. I have separated them for now...How long should I wait until I put them back in with the original hens??? Please help!!!