Hi 
I am a slightly worried chicken mum. I have never experienced a molt before; only having chickens for a couple of years. Dusty is a 15 month old Bantam Langshan. She regularly laid an egg every day or so until recently when she stretched that out to every 3-4 days and two weeks ago she stopped laying. During this period she initially lost two symetric, vertical, 3cm rows of feathers on either side of her vent which looked a bit like a zipper and new feathers have come through. There have been a few black feathers around the place and I figured she was mini-molting. But today, when I get home, it looks like someone has replaced Dusty with a chicken which has had a couple of losing bouts with a chicken plucker! Black feathers everywhere and she now has some bare patches.
I am fairly vigilant with the Pestene for mite and lice and when I picked her up today, she still has a good weight and besides not laying and looking like a Dusty-imposter, she seems fine, eating, drinking, scrounging around etc. She still has a nice red comb, healthy looking poops and there are no nasties on her or in the coop or nest boxes.
Does this sound and look like typical molting?
I am a slightly worried chicken mum. I have never experienced a molt before; only having chickens for a couple of years. Dusty is a 15 month old Bantam Langshan. She regularly laid an egg every day or so until recently when she stretched that out to every 3-4 days and two weeks ago she stopped laying. During this period she initially lost two symetric, vertical, 3cm rows of feathers on either side of her vent which looked a bit like a zipper and new feathers have come through. There have been a few black feathers around the place and I figured she was mini-molting. But today, when I get home, it looks like someone has replaced Dusty with a chicken which has had a couple of losing bouts with a chicken plucker! Black feathers everywhere and she now has some bare patches.
I am fairly vigilant with the Pestene for mite and lice and when I picked her up today, she still has a good weight and besides not laying and looking like a Dusty-imposter, she seems fine, eating, drinking, scrounging around etc. She still has a nice red comb, healthy looking poops and there are no nasties on her or in the coop or nest boxes.
Does this sound and look like typical molting?
