chicken not molting

[Zwillingsmama]

I have 5 chicken, they will be 2 at the end of May. 4 went through molt. My BCM took forever to molt 2/3 months, my BR and EE molted within a months, my SS took about 6 weeks. All but the SS have started laying again. My OE (legbar/welsummer mix) on the other hand has not stopped laying eggs since she started last year in February and has not molted. Do chicken skip molting, will she molt later this year? just wondering

 

[sourland]

She may or may not go into a full blown molt. Some birds just drop a few feathers at a time and do not exhibit the 'totally naked' sort of molt.

 

[Zwillingsmama]

I am pretty certain she has not dropped any significant amount of feathers. My girls all have different colors so they are easily identifiable. and so far no beige feathers in the coop or run. Non of the others went through any hard molt either - a few feathers here and there with the exception of my EE who shed a lot of feathers in a short time and even she never was bolt. I live in the SF Bay Area and we had a really mild winter even for CA.

 

[Mtnboomer]

I have had my Brahmas running around in nothing but their birthday suits and some look like they have never lost a feather. I do not know if there is any real correlation here but my oldest birds 2yr+ used to molt the worst.
One gal molted in January 2 yrs ago. I had to keep her in the coop until her feathers grew back. She looked like Foghorn Leghorn after a TNT stick went off.

 

[centrarchid]

Could you post a current picture of the hen that did not molt? Generally feathers that are not replaced in a timely manner show a distinctive wear pattern.

 

[Zwillingsmama]

Could you post a current picture of the hen that did not molt? Generally feathers that are not replaced in a timely manner show a distinctive wear pattern.

Here is a picture of her. Her shoulder and neck feathers are fairly new. She is on the bottom of the pecking order and 2 of my other hens pecked all her shoulder and neck feathers away until they started to molt and felt too crappy to pursue her.

 

[centrarchid]

Here is a picture of her. Her shoulder and neck feathers are fairly new. She is on the bottom of the pecking order and 2 of my other hens pecked all her shoulder and neck feathers away until they started to molt and felt too crappy to pursue her.

Tail feathers at least are recently (as in last few months) replaced. She may have slipped a molt past you by not loosing all tail feathers at once.