You know that moment when you walk into the coop and one of your hens looks like she's been through a tiny, feathery war, while the other seven are perfect little fluff-balls? That's exactly where /u/LeBrontoJames is right now. One hen, missing leg fluff, acting perfectly fine, roosting like a queen. And the rest of us are left scratching our heads, carefully, because mites might be involved.
We love this post because it captures the exact blend of worry and practical detective work that defines chicken keeping. The OP has already done the smart stuff: checked for rodent entry points, upgraded the run with hardware cloth buried a foot down, and swapped between hay and pine shavings. That's not panicking. That's problem-solving. And yet, the mystery remains. Why just one hen? She's not acting sick, not hiding, not off her feed. She's just… bald-legged.
The most common culprits, mites, rodents, or even a particularly aggressive rooster, usually don't single out one bird unless something else is going on. The fact that she's the only one affected and doesn't seem bothered points away from a full-blown infestation. More likely, she's just the hen who likes to sleep in the draftiest spot, or she's rubbing her legs on something odd inside the coop that the others avoid. We'd bet a bag of scratch grains it's mechanical, not parasitic.
If a reader asked us what to do next, we'd say: grab a flashlight and inspect that roosting bar at night. Sometimes the culprit is a splintered edge, a stray nail head, or even a rough patch of wire that only catches one hen's legs. Check the nesting box hay for any hidden sharp bits, too. And if nothing turns up, give her a week on plain pine shavings and see if the fluff grows back. Mites leave more obvious signs, scaly legs, restlessness, tiny crawling specks you can spot with a magnifying glass. She's showing none of that.
So keep watching, keep laughing at the absurdity of it all, and remember: a hen with missing leg fluff who still rules the roost is probably just fine. You've already done the hard part, caring enough to notice. Now go check that roosting bar and give her a little extra mealworm tax for being such a good sport.