At what age and season does moulting (molting??) usually begin?

[AuburnChickenNewbies]

Okay, I've tried to take a few pictures. Unfortunately the girls weren't in the mood for photos yesterday, so this was a challenge. I did end up getting a few photos of three of them that 'might' show a bit of what I'm describing, but they're not really very good.

This one shows one of the EE'gers with a bit of a bare neck up under her chin:

And one of the Astrolorps:

Maybe this will help:

This one's a bit blurry, but the other astrolorp is getting pretty bare:

Here you can see a bit more of two of them:

Not all of the girls are getting bare like this ... and the bareness is actually a bit more pronounced on the two Astrolorps than any of the others. One of them is bare on the back of her neck too, but under some of the other feathers so it's harder to see.

Any ideas?

 

[teach1rusl]

I can't tell on the EEs, but it looks like feather shafts poking through on the BA shots. If you're seeing feather shafts poke through, then that's a good sign of molting.

 

[AuburnChickenNewbies]

Floyd, actually the skin is pretty smooth. It might be the picture.

I read on one of the threads that some birds pick at one another and eat the feathers and this could be a sign of not enough protein in their feed. What do you think?

 

[teach1rusl]

How long have the areas been bare? It can take up to two weeks to see the feather shafts to pop out. So if it's been longer than that, then I might suspect feather pecking/plucking... If that's the case, you might invest some observation time this weekend to find the culprit.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

That may be feather picking. My BO plucked the beards out of my 2 EEs last year. I believe it started after they had gotten yogurt on their beards. They stayed beardless until their molt this fall. Now they have full beards again and it appears that the BO has dropped her problem behavior.

 

[AuburnChickenNewbies]

So what do I do if it is feather plucking/picking? I don't have place to separate the crowd ..... Maybe they make those "elizabethean collars" in chicken sizes!

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

Quote:

 

[aoxa]

I had one that started in October, and it was not a hard molt, and she is still growing in her hackle feathers!

 

[AuburnChickenNewbies]

I've ordered some chicken jumpers to keep her warm & they have a Snugglesafe each anyway.

Funny post!!!

Okay, I'm going to go with the idea that this is feather plucking and see if I can't change some behavioral stuff along with increasing their protein a bit.

I can't let them free range in the yard because I have a couple of golden retrievers that are obsessed with these birds. They killed 3 chicks when the birds were in their temporary day pen as we finished up their coop ... and these dogs roam the edges of the pen thinking they might be able to sneak in. But the bird pen is really huge for only 7 hens, although it's totally denuded of growth now.

I'm hoping that when we get into spring that I 'might' be able to encourage some green growth in the pen, although I'm doubtful they'll leave it alone long enough to accomplish anything significant. I've given some thought to grabbing a few rolls of sod to put up there, but I'm wondering if that stuff has been treated with weed killers, etc., so I'm hesitant.

Anyway, I think I'm going to pick up a 40 pound bag of black oil sunflower seeds today along with a flock block to hang off the fence. I've gotten lazy about giving them leftover carb-type goodies from the kitchen (pancakes, leftover bread, that sort of thing), so back to making sure that the kitchen scraps are veggie types. I'll get up in the neighbor's empty field too and see if I can't score some green stuff -- likely it'll be dried grasses though (is that okay?)

Also, we often don't get the coop opened up to the pen until about 8am because of the way our work schedules fit, so I think the other thing to do is to try to let them out a bit earlier. If the daggone pop door openers were so expensive I'd work that angle as well. I don't know that any of us have the talent to craft one of these ourselves.​

 

[bobbieschicks]

Quote:
Funny post!!!

Okay, I'm going to go with the idea that this is feather plucking and see if I can't change some behavioral stuff along with increasing their protein a bit.

I can't let them free range in the yard because I have a couple of golden retrievers that are obsessed with these birds. They killed 3 chicks when the birds were in their temporary day pen as we finished up their coop ... and these dogs roam the edges of the pen thinking they might be able to sneak in. But the bird pen is really huge for only 7 hens, although it's totally denuded of growth now.

I'm hoping that when we get into spring that I 'might' be able to encourage some green growth in the pen, although I'm doubtful they'll leave it alone long enough to accomplish anything significant. I've given some thought to grabbing a few rolls of sod to put up there, but I'm wondering if that stuff has been treated with weed killers, etc., so I'm hesitant.

Anyway, I think I'm going to pick up a 40 pound bag of black oil sunflower seeds today along with a flock block to hang off the fence. I've gotten lazy about giving them leftover carb-type goodies from the kitchen (pancakes, leftover bread, that sort of thing), so back to making sure that the kitchen scraps are veggie types. I'll get up in the neighbor's empty field too and see if I can't score some green stuff -- likely it'll be dried grasses though (is that okay?)

Also, we often don't get the coop opened up to the pen until about 8am because of the way our work schedules fit, so I think the other thing to do is to try to let them out a bit earlier. If the daggone pop door openers were so expensive I'd work that angle as well. I don't know that any of us have the talent to craft one of these ourselves.

Yes - auto coop doors are great - I've had one since day 1 and love it! I used my own homemade door (3/4" plywood slab painted in exterior grade high gloss benjamin moore paint with old drawer slides as door guides) and purchased an add-a-motor from Discount Home Automation http://www.discounthomeautomation.com/Add-A-Motor-Chicken-Coop-Motor-AD20 I don't have electric so I also ordered their solar kit. It's been great not having to get up early or stay up late. I primarily got it for vacations so I'd have peace of mind that they were getting let out each day because you don't know for sure what that chicken sitter is doing while you are away