Molting - Your Flock's Annual Shedding
Why exactly does molting happen you may ask? Many 1st-time poultry owners may wonder if their backyard chickens are sick as soon as they see the pile of fluff in their chicken run & coop and the bald spots all over their backyard flock members. Well in this article you will learn the who, what, when, where, and how's of molting.
Molting Length
Molting can also sometimes be triggered by stress. Molting occurs throughout the animal kingdom in a wide variety of species, in the Webster dictionary molting is defined as "to shed hair, feathers, shell, horns, or an outer layer periodically" referring to poultry, feathers are shed periodically throughout the specimens life. So during molting, hens (and roosters) will shed their old feathers and experience new feather growth. Chicks actually go through one complete and three partial molts during their first 5 months of age. When they are 2+ weeks old they will begin to molt their down feathers and grow in their first feathers.
When they are approximately 7-9 weeks of age and again at 12-16 weeks of age and finally at 20-22 weeks of age, they will go through a partial molt where they do not completely shed all of their feathers. Mature birds normally undergo one complete molt per year, usually early autumn. This can depend on the time of the year that the bird started laying.
The natural molting season usually begins in autumn. The main factors that bring about molting are physical exhaustion/fatigue, completion of the laying cycle, and reduction of daylight hours.
Does Molting Hurt?
No many of my friends and neighbors have asked me if molting hurts but the answer is no, molting is very similar to losing a piece of hair or clipping a fingernail the feather is already dead, the only time in the process of molting where the specimen can be in pain is close to the end where they are starting to grow in "pin feathers" this process can sometimes be painful so during this period DO NOT PICK ANY MOLTING MEMBER OF YOUR FLOCK UP!!!
If you pick up a molting member of your flock during this process it could cause them pain and even damage one of the developing feathers because they contain blood-filled veins in each new feather shaft.
Pic by Thassa
Can I Speed Up Molting?
Yes, you can speed up molting but only by a few days, if you feed your flock a high protein supplement added onto their daily rations then the process of molting can be sped up. Feathers are comprised mostly of protein and it takes a lot of energy to reproduce feathers so by giving them the extra high protein feed (can be from scrambled eggs, black oil sunflower seeds, mealworms, tuna fish, etc.) you speed up molting and feather regrowth. But why would you want to speed up molt? When the chicken molts their egg production will either drop radically or stop completely. If you have a large family or sell the eggs you are going to need every egg you can get your hands on!
To support the molting process is also advisable to feed them extra vitamins and minerals which can be obtainable from snacks or the odd treat that should be given to them in moderation (no more than 10% of their daily feed requirements).
So for the newbies or even the experienced poultry owners molting is 100% natural and is actually a process that helps your chicken live a happy life by giving them new, clean, un-damaged feathers. So don't worry when you see the "snowstorm" in your flock's run it is a natural process that all poultry and 90% of other organisms experience. After a few weeks when the molting process is over they will be back to normal again!
Pics by dfdesigns
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