Chicken Losing/Shedding feathers?

[rebrascora]

Hi

I agree that it is most likely an early moult. She will probably stop laying soon and put her resources into growing in new feathers. Pekins are unlikely to lay through moult because they are not high production birds but she is still only in the early stages, so I think you will see an end to her eggs soon. Watch for her comb getting paler and looking a bit wizened and dry, like a broody hen. That indicates that she is no longer ovulating.
Timing of moult is an individual thing just like the age at which they start laying. One might start several weeks or even a month before her hatch siblings. If they were hatched very early in the preceding year(ie late winter/early spring) they are probably more likely to moult earlier than chicks hatched in mid summer, which will often wait until late autumn or even winter moult.

 

[Brummie Pekin]

Hi

I agree that it is most likely an early moult. She will probably stop laying soon and put her resources into growing in new feathers. Pekins are unlikely to lay through moult because they are not high production birds but she is still only in the early stages, so I think you will see an end to her eggs soon. Watch for her comb getting paler and looking a bit wizened and dry, like a broody hen. That indicates that she is no longer ovulating.
Timing of moult is an individual thing just like the age at which they start laying. One might start several weeks or even a month before her hatch siblings. If they were hatched very early in the preceding year(ie late winter/early spring) they are probably more likely to moult earlier than chicks hatched in mid summer, which will often wait until late autumn or even winter moult.

Ok so I should be expecting her to stop laying soon, which wouldn't really make a difference because she does not lay as often as the other hens.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

If I don't have any current year birds beginning to lay, I start hoarding eggs in August in anticipation of the dearth of eggs to come in autumn.

 

[rebrascora]

If I don't have any current year birds beginning to lay, I start hoarding eggs in August in anticipation of the dearth of eggs to come in autumn.

Me too! I can usually eek them out to just tide me over until they start laying again.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Mine are all the same breed of chicken - although 2 different ages. One group I got as day olds during the spring hatch, the other group was a fall hatch a year later.

I am not sure if the breed makes a difference with time of molt - different breeds may molt at different times.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Me too! I can usually eek them out to just tide me over until they start laying again.

Yeah, after all the work and expense, I hate buying store eggs.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

...

I am not sure if the breed makes a difference with time of molt - different breeds may molt at different times.

IMO, breed doesn't play much of a role except that a bit of anecdotal evidence is that most breeds I've had were fairly well recovered from molt by the time extreme cold hit. However, all my Jaerhons molted in December and January. Being from Norway, I guess that was their way of saying, "You call this cold?"