I have a couple of chickens getting really naked on their backs. A couple of pictures are below. The barred rock started what appeared to be a molt on her tail early fall. Her tail feathers have not come back. The only newish fresh looking feathers are around her neck and head. The tail, which I thought was to recover first, hasn't. There are lots of feathers that look like they are thinning out really bad. The silver laced wyandotte has been losing feathers behind her tail for a couple months, and we can now see skin on her back. Both have continued laying throughout the winter. The BR's age is unknown. The SLW was hatched January 31 2011, and started laying in July last year.
I have other birds that were hatched the same date as the SLW, that have a few feathers missing behind the wings. This all started before my roo became mature and began mating, so while some of the feather loss can be attributed to that, not all can. So I guess, what I'm wondering is if molting can happen in the spring, or be peaking this time of year, or is it too late for this? Is there a "season" for molting, or can it happen any time, depending on the bird? There do not appear to be any lice or mites...Here are some pics....





I have other birds that were hatched the same date as the SLW, that have a few feathers missing behind the wings. This all started before my roo became mature and began mating, so while some of the feather loss can be attributed to that, not all can. So I guess, what I'm wondering is if molting can happen in the spring, or be peaking this time of year, or is it too late for this? Is there a "season" for molting, or can it happen any time, depending on the bird? There do not appear to be any lice or mites...Here are some pics....