Crack Feathers

Well, Ginger's at it again... she has butt problems.   For those of you who have been following this blog, Ginger has always had butt problems. Well now, she's pulling feathers out of her butt! A whole patch of feathers... gone.  It doesn't look like much in the picture, but that is a lot of feather plucking.
 

As always, I went to my (un)reliable chicken website sources and learned that there could be several reasons for butt feather plucking:

1. Stress. (Duh.  I think the websites just say the birds are stressed when they don't know the answer to my questions.)
2. Lice or Mites.  (GASP! This was not an option for MY clean chickens.   This site was very helpful:  http://ucanr.org/freepubs/docs/8162.pdf  and gross.  Nope, Ginger is a very clean, very beautiful chicken - she has no mites or lice.)
3. She's molting.  (Nope, this starts at the head and they start to look like baby dinosaurs again.)
4. She needs more protein.  This could actually be a viable option in this situation.  The chicken people say if they pluck their feathers and eat them, they are in need of protein.  Apparently the quills have protein in them.  These days whenever one of the girls looses a feather you would think it was crack cocaine.  They all chase after the feather like crack-fiend.  "BAAACALK!!  Gimmie that feather!!!"  It's gobbled down before it even hits the ground.   I guess I have crack-head chickens.  Great.  So, Coop De Ville is currently a rehab facility for crack-head poultry.  If you know any other chickens with the same problem send them over. Our program is guaranteed to work and the fees are reasonable.   We add greek yogurt to their diet and are currently investigating the protein content in cat food.  (Eeew)  It will be hard to ween them off the crack (I know because I was a prosecutor and talked to a LOT of crack-heads), but I have high hopes for these girls.