Alert! Your Chickens May be Molting!

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Our younger flock is 13-week old pullets & they appear to be molting the last couple weeks (odd timing!). Considering their age, do you think they may start to lay in the winter months, even with winter coming on? We haven't decided whether or not it's best this year to supplement the light because we have older hens (4-7 yrs old) still partially laying and think they may need a rest.

Young birds go thru what is called a juvenile molt as they grow out, it's nothing compared to older birds that can molt heavy.
 
You know your girls are moulting when your SO comes running in yelling "theres feathers everywhere!" not even thinking he'd been away for 3 days and had never seen moulting.

I am glad tho that someone brought up the subject of showing. It seemed like people hair sprayed their birds, kept them from preening all day. After the judging was over, it seemed like there was feathers rolling out the door!

Its an interesting subject as it seems to have taken mine a really good month and they are now begining to look better. Still no eggs and during the hardest time, I gave them some "fat and finish" pellets mixed into their layer feed. Some one mentioned using a like product to bring the feathers to prime color and health. These girls are going into their 2nd winter and I must say, food or maturity, they look swell! Even tho they are mutts.

Thank you for this article, it helps us all!
 
My girls went through a super heavy molt and are just coming out of it. Many of them were literally near naked save for a few wing feathers. My oldest DD kept asking me if someone saw my chickens could the animal shelter come get them as they looked horribly abused. I kept assuring her the molt was normal.

I think the odd molting, the heavy molts, the super thick feathers regowing this may be a sign of a long cold winter in the works.
 
I suspect mine are starting to molt, at least some of them. They go to the nest boxes and cackle-up a storm, but no egg. They're only about 23 weeks old. How bad is a first molt? It's getting cold here, do I need little jackets?
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Weird thing is, my Red Stars has gone from laying six days and taking a day off to laying everyday for the past two weeks. I'm not sure what's going on in there, but it's a little scary.
 
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Our younger flock is 13-week old pullets & they appear to be molting the last couple weeks (odd timing!). Considering their age, do you think they may start to lay in the winter months, even with winter coming on? We haven't decided whether or not it's best this year to supplement the light because we have older hens (4-7 yrs old) still partially laying and think they may need a rest.

Young birds go thru what is called a juvenile molt as they grow out, it's nothing compared to older birds that can molt heavy.

I was thinking the same thing. Growing pullets are always looking a bit tatty.

I don't think that they'll start laying when they reach PoL unless you have the 14 hours of light on them... or at the very least, they won't start laying utnil the day length begins increasing.
 
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I stumbled across a couple yesterday that looked like they had been washed, polished, waxed and blow dried. Their colors were so more vivid than any of the other birds. So, they likely hvae completed their molt already. It's just impossible for me to tell when they may have started, when they stopped laying, etc.

With 50 geese, 30 ducks and 100+ hens on the premises, there are always feathers everywhere.
 
Can a chicken molt at 8 months old? Out of my 7 chickens, only one seems to be losing feathers in any noticable way - my Delaware. She's lost her longer tail feathers and is looking a bit scruffy in general. I haven't seen any bad behavior or injury to her (I'm pretty sure she's the 'Queen' of the coop), and I don't know if she's laying or not. We are still averaging 4-5 eggs a day, which is down from a couple months ago with 6-7 eggs/day.
 
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YES, my poor Sweetness tiptoes around like she's apologizing for bringing down the aesthetic appeal of the neighborhood. (She ought to! - she looks like a trainwreck!)
 

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