A Molting Story

[3KillerBs]

Update -- she's well-feathered again, with many more black spots than she had in her first year. No big, white eggs yet, but I saw her looking at the nest boxes this morning.

 

[linguini]

Thanks for the chronicles of molting! I am glad my chooks are not the only ones taking so long to molt!

I wonder if the length of molting is also a reflection of how healthy/strong they are?

Our head hen's feather regrowth was so much faster than the others - she's the healthiest looking, always has the biggest crop before roosting, and has the strongest beak and peck. But even she tried to roost in the nesting box during the peak of her molt.

 

[3KillerBs]

Thanks for the chronicles of molting! I am glad my chooks are not the only ones taking so long to molt!

I wonder if the length of molting is also a reflection of how healthy/strong they are?

Our head hen's feather regrowth was so much faster than the others - she's the healthiest looking, always has the biggest crop before roosting, and has the strongest beak and peck. But even she tried to roost in the nesting box during the peak of her molt.

If she lays this week she'll have been done in about 7-8 weeks and have taken her break during the darkest months of the year. I'm quite pleased with that.

 

[linguini]

If she lays this week she'll have been done in about 7-8 weeks and have taken her break during the darkest months of the year. I'm quite pleased with that.

Good benchmark for us inexperienced chooks parents It's like watching our teenager kids going through awkward times. It's hard work for them.
My husband sometimes allows them sleeping in the box having pity on them when he closes up the coop.

 

[3KillerBs]

The big, white eggs are back!

 

[linguini]

View attachment 3008652

The big, white eggs are back!

Our small white egg from our Polish hen also finally came back TODAY! She stopped since Oct 29. (molting + winter) That's a LONG pause.

 

[3KillerBs]

I just counted, Chipotle's pause in laying was between 11 and 12 weeks.

I *think* that's the shortest pause in the flock, though I don't know how that compares to laying-type hens in general.

 

[linguini]

Just looked up our records of 8 laying hens. Their molting + winter pause range from 8 weeks to 4 months. The top hen recovered very quickly from her molt (8 weeks), resume laying with slower speed in late January when the day started to have 10 hours of sunlight but at the "winter speed" much slower cycle than her normal one.

I wonder if the recovery rate also reflect how strong the chicken's physical health is? We have two that never molted, continued to lay (slower cycle, every other day) throughout the winter.

I also noticed that several hens lay bigger eggs since they resume laying - perhaps their bodies are recharged, and they are now fully mature?