Can someone post a pictures of their hen moulting?

[puddinbabe]

I'm just wondering what a moult looks like. Anyone have a picture they care to share?

 

[Blisschick]

You may have to wait another month or so for the good photos to start showing up. Chickens don't usually start molting until the days start getting shorter and cooler. Then it's like if they sneeze, they loose all their feathers.

Some will lose a bunch at a time, others only a few (like mine), so it will be gradual. It's been the norm for us to have some kind of Ugliest Bird contest around that time to show off our naked babies.

 

[speckledhen]

Mine are molting, at least some of them are. I'll see if I can find a picture, although, that isn't the time most people want to take pics of their birds, LOL.
***Took a few pics of some in all their ragged scruffiness and shame, LOL. Poor girls. All in the interest of education. Sorry, girls!
Here's Rosemary of the No Middle Toenails, the runt of my original flock

Here's Reba, who was suddenly naked with no tailfeathers and a bare bottom. Her feathers are growing in fast, so she did look much worse than this:

And here's my poor, poor Lexie, the most ratty of all and I decided to post a pic of her before the rooster and the molt so you could see she really is a pretty girl and will be again some day:

 

[siz8003]

oh good i thought my girls were gonna die on me! there just molting

 

[speckledhen]

They sure do look pitiful, don't they? And to think, they have to go through this at least once a year.

 

[puddinbabe]

Both of my girls are missing their bottom feather right now. Looks like the start of a moult. Glad that's all it is.

Annie

 

[Nyna]

Don't mean to steal the thread here, but why would they molt in the fall? It is starting to get cold here in Montana and it doesn't make sense that they'd loose there feathers? Mine haven't molted yet and this is my first year with chickens, so I don't know a lot about it.

 

[silkiechicken]

Silly how they molt in the fall too when the weather gets bad! I suspect that it is timed so that they have new soft, protective feathers by the time winter hits so they can better protect themselves from the elements.

 

[chickbea]

Quote:
In general, chickens who live in the colder areas will molt and regrow faster than those in warmer climates. By the time it's nippy out, they are fully feathered again. There are all sorts of opinions about supplementing the diet with various things to help speed up feather growth, but I never feed anything extra and my girls seem to do just fine.
I just noticed two days ago that my old lady hen is starting to lose the feathers around her comb - always a sure sign that the snow is not far behind!

 

[eggzettera]

Don't mean to hijack thread but do they continue to lay eggs while they go through the molt? TIA