Hi everyone,
This morning was the first time in a week I've actually been able to look at my chickens, since I wake up before light and come home after dark. It was also the first freezing night of the year, so I gave my chickens a good look-over to see how they did. Well, it didn't take much looking to notice that two of my hens, the two that never moulted this fall, are nearly naked on the chest. Especially my barred rock. Both she and the rhode island red are pretty sorry looking right now. I didn't expect this out of them and I'm not sure what I should do. It's supposed to get down to 30 tonight. I'm about to put a heat lamp in their coop, but when I did that last year, they hated it and they refused to go anywhere near it. I noticed this afternoon that they are plucking their own chests and legs, as if they are determined to get naked before they go to sleep for the night. Does anyone have any experience with this? Why are they doing it and what should I do?
In case it's helpful to know, I feed them normal chicken feed from the feed store and they free-range all day in the backyard. Egg production is down as far as I can tell, but that might not be true since they sometimes start hidden nesting spots over in the garden area because they are too lazy to go all the way over to their proper nesting boxes during the day. My buff orpington moulted in September and she looks great. Also, she's the only hen that will deign to sleep in the sheltered part of the coop. My coop has two roosts, one on the inside and one on the outside run section. Thanks in advance for any help you can give!
This morning was the first time in a week I've actually been able to look at my chickens, since I wake up before light and come home after dark. It was also the first freezing night of the year, so I gave my chickens a good look-over to see how they did. Well, it didn't take much looking to notice that two of my hens, the two that never moulted this fall, are nearly naked on the chest. Especially my barred rock. Both she and the rhode island red are pretty sorry looking right now. I didn't expect this out of them and I'm not sure what I should do. It's supposed to get down to 30 tonight. I'm about to put a heat lamp in their coop, but when I did that last year, they hated it and they refused to go anywhere near it. I noticed this afternoon that they are plucking their own chests and legs, as if they are determined to get naked before they go to sleep for the night. Does anyone have any experience with this? Why are they doing it and what should I do?
In case it's helpful to know, I feed them normal chicken feed from the feed store and they free-range all day in the backyard. Egg production is down as far as I can tell, but that might not be true since they sometimes start hidden nesting spots over in the garden area because they are too lazy to go all the way over to their proper nesting boxes during the day. My buff orpington moulted in September and she looks great. Also, she's the only hen that will deign to sleep in the sheltered part of the coop. My coop has two roosts, one on the inside and one on the outside run section. Thanks in advance for any help you can give!
