9 months old hens molting ??

[GermanChick]

2 of my hens (1 Barred Rock and 1 EE) are molting ....... I guess. The Barred Rock looks like a Turken right now, no feathers on the neck only the hard shafts of the new feathers sticking out. I always thought that they wouldn't molt the first year and start molting around 1 1/2 years in the fall. They all hatched in April 2010. Is this normal ???

 

[Morgan7782]

Yep! They go through a mini molt around 9 months old and usually lose neck feathers, and tail feathers and look AWFUL lol!!!! I have a 10 month old Brahma just now coming out of a molt.

I would up the protien in their food or snacks. Meat, Black Oil Sunflower Seeds, and a few others are good for upping that! Somebody else can chime in as well with tips

but it is normal

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
Ditto!

 

[GermanChick]

Yes, they do look quite funny

I mixed some cat food in their daily left over "whatever is on hand" pan. And they get BOSS every day.
Learning something new every day. Never heard about that mini molt before

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Ditto!

X3 Some but not all of my brahmas molted in the nine month old range.

 

[KazAnder Farms]

Funny enough I have found a way to discourage the yearly molt by adding extra lights and keeping them on.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
But...they need the yearly molt. Egglaying takes alot out of a hen.

 

[KazAnder Farms]

I'm not saying the egg laying continues, they just don't loose their feathers, we had some family coming over and vain as I am, I didn't want to turn the nieces and nephews off to chickens because they were scary or something not to cuddle with.

gritsar
Yesterday 4:44 pm
KazAnder Farms wrote:

Funny enough I have found a way to discourage the yearly molt by adding extra lights and keeping them on.

But...they need the yearly molt. Egglaying takes alot out of a hen.

but you're probably right about that.​

 

[Agnella]

I'm so glad I found this post! I have 8 BO's and only one seems to be going through this right now. She has the loss of feathers only on her neck and tail....poor girl looks horrible next to the others!

Do chickens lose weight during their molt? She's looking skinny and has the lightest weight of all of them.

Thanks!!

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
They can. They are just basically miserable while molting. I probably would be too if I felt like a pincushion.