Bald spot - moulting or fighting?

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Hi people, new member searching for info and came across this thread. A couple of my girls suddenly have "hunks' missing from their necks. After the info in this thread (thanks) I'm pretty sure it's moulting and nothing more 'sinister'.

A bit of related curiosity on this topic - my question is "why now"? The OP is also in Australia and her initial post was in December which is the middle of summer over here. How come our chooks would start moulting now, rather than in autumn/when it's starting to get cold? It has been blazingly hot lately, I can't imagine why a chicken's biology would tell it to get new feathers?
 
Hi Potato Chip. My hens are currently moulting again, although nowhere near as bad as last time. I think they do it now in summer because it takes quite a while for the feathers to grow back, so they are probably shedding them now because of the hot weather to try and cool off a bit.

Have you checked the area for pin feathers? The appearance of pin feathers was very reassuring for me to know that it was just a moult and nothing worse.

Cheers,
Three Silkies
 
Three Silkies said:
because of the hot weather to try and cool off a bit.
Click to expand...
Thanks, yes, maybe that's it, shedding 'early' when it's hot might have the effect of being cooler (although I'd though feathers had a sort of insulating effect).

I think there are pin feathers, but I've been busy rigging up their new house and it's a bit hot for "inspections" so I haven't given them a good "going over" yet.
 
I saw on the news tonight your terrible weather and bushfire over there. It sounds like you're new to chickens? As you would be aware, we get the horrible heatwaves here in SA too. Chickens really struggle in temps above 28 degrees. I freeze bottles of water and put them in their drinker, cover the henhouse in blankets and saturate them, make ice blocks using a muffin tray filled with water, corn and sunflower seeds. And when it's over 40, I hose the hens down. They don't like that much, but it's the only way to keep them alive.

Sorry if I'm telling you stuff you already know!

Let us know how you go with ascertaining the moulting. Keep an eye out for blood just in case. What breed of hens do you have?
 
I had some chickens several years ago. This is my second lot.

Interestingly, my girls stayed in the run of their new house/run that I only finished setting up today. It's a good sign that it's nice and cool in there. I've put it under my big eucalypt. Normally they sit under bushes. They had a gazebo in their run (the tree in there is still quite small, casts some shade, but not a lot), but it got wrecked the other day so it's like the sahara everywhere not under the tree.

I hate it when it's hot. I've also got bunnies and they are also horribly heat sensitive.

There's definitely no blood and everybody seems well. My chooks are ISA Browns.
 

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