As to whether it hurts the chicken when it is molting, it's uncomfortable. That's why they are most often irritable during molt, and dislike being touched and held.
The pin feathers cause them to feel "prickly", both to themselves and to those of us touching them. Since it is uncomfortable for them to be handled during molt, you need to be gentle with them, but also because feathers just starting to grow in have a blood supply that can cause uncontrollable bleeding if they're broken off above the skin. The feather shaft doesn't permit the blood to coagulate so, theoretically, a chicken could bleed to death, though I believe this is rare.
My entire flock of fifteen are currently in molt. Early one morning last week, I found my rooster bleeding profusely as he perched on his roosting perch. He had broken a pin feather coming in on his foot. (He's a feather-footed breed.) The blood was steadily dripping with no indication it was going to stop on its own. I took him from the perch and brought him into the house. I ran warm water over it to clean it, then I applied direct pressure for five minutes and that stopped the bleeding.
I have also, in the past, found signs of heavy bleeding in the hen coop, and no outward signs of anyone having been injured. I assumed it was from a pin feather breaking off during the night.
So molt does have its perils, though they are few.
The pin feathers cause them to feel "prickly", both to themselves and to those of us touching them. Since it is uncomfortable for them to be handled during molt, you need to be gentle with them, but also because feathers just starting to grow in have a blood supply that can cause uncontrollable bleeding if they're broken off above the skin. The feather shaft doesn't permit the blood to coagulate so, theoretically, a chicken could bleed to death, though I believe this is rare.
My entire flock of fifteen are currently in molt. Early one morning last week, I found my rooster bleeding profusely as he perched on his roosting perch. He had broken a pin feather coming in on his foot. (He's a feather-footed breed.) The blood was steadily dripping with no indication it was going to stop on its own. I took him from the perch and brought him into the house. I ran warm water over it to clean it, then I applied direct pressure for five minutes and that stopped the bleeding.
I have also, in the past, found signs of heavy bleeding in the hen coop, and no outward signs of anyone having been injured. I assumed it was from a pin feather breaking off during the night.
So molt does have its perils, though they are few.
