My Molting Chicken Has Turned Mean - Is This Normal?

[cleopatra]

I have a hen going through her first molt. (This is my first molt as well) She lost about half of her feathers last week and has lots of pin feathers starting to appear. I have two other hens that should molt this season, but they haven't started yet. A couple of days ago she started getting mean and is picking on all of the other chickens. My alpha hen is trying to keep her in line, but isn't having much success. Does molting make a chicken turn mean?

 

[Happy Chooks]

Molting can make them crabby. They want to be left alone. She'll return to her normal self when she's finished molting.

 

[azygous]

Molting isn't fun. They get all prickly with the pin feathers growing out, and even the friendliest ones hate being handled. When their feathers are all finished growing out, they revert back to their old loveable selves.

 

[cleopatra]

Thanks so much for the info. I haven't been handling her because it's obvious she doesn't want to be touched at all. I'm just surprised at how she's going around starting up fights with the other girls. I guess unless she starts to really do harm to others, I'll just let chickens be chickens.