I've been keeping chickens for eight years and not seen this before: I bought a new hen yesterday. I've been wanting some white eggs for a while and not been able to source any such hens. So yesterday I drove past a place that sells them. They said they're Leghorns, but I thnk they're hybrids. Anyway, they look like Leghorns. They had three. Two of them had a large bare patch on their back where the skin looked quite dry and thick. It was just before the tail feathers (but on their back, not near the vent). The sellers said they'd probably been pecked. The third one looked OK so I bought her to go with a lonely Maran who's just lost her friend.
Anyway, the one I bought has got lots of black specks in the same place as the others were bare. It could be bits of bark as they were on bark when I bought them. The specks aren't all the same size. Could it be lice or a different parasite? Or bits of bark?
Any opinons very welcome. She's still in quarantine.