Loss of feathers

[Anonymous]

One of my chickens has lost loads of feathers. She is a frizzle and now has a bold head, neck, breast and tummy. Her skin does not appear to be particularly sore and she seems in good spirits - eating, laying and strutting around the garden. I'm pretty sure she's not moulting as she isn't a year old yet. I can't see any evidence of mites, but have powered her anyway. My other 3 hens seem absolutely fine (apart from scaly leg mite!). Any ideas?

 

[Anonymous]

It does sound like she's moulted,or,had a partial moult.Especially if she didn't moult last november/december time.
Can you see signs of new feathers starting to re-grow?

 

[Anonymous]

I can't obviously see new feathers growing. However, have noticed that some of her feathers seem to have lost the feathery bit but she still has the main shaft attached. Is this typical of moulting? She generally feels prickly when I pick her up rather than soft and downy like my other frizzle.

 

[podstable]

A possibility is that she is 'double gened' for frizzle feathers . If she has this they develop thin twisty and very fragile feathers which break/snap off along the shaft. I have a cockerel who has, this as he always looks half bald with loads of broken feathers --this is a bad trait but when crossed with plain feathered girls he produces all frizzle chicks -with ' normal' frizzling. Ros