Chickens missing neck feathers

[alisonjones89]

Hello Backyard Chickeners!

I hope all of you had an amazing holiday! I moved my girls about three months ago into our new house and their new coop, which is significantly smaller than their last. I noticed a few weeks ago that my Wyandotte was missing feathers on the back of her neck. We were gone for a few days, and when I got back, one of my RIRs and my California white have feathers missing in the same spot. What would be causing this/should I be worried? Could it be related to the cold? Or possibly boredom with each other? All three of these girls stopped laying for the winter and seem to be eating, drinking, and happy to see me. My Australorp, other RIR, and Barred Rock are all laying and are not missing any feathers. Maybe they are bullying the others? Anyway, here is a picture of my white chicken (sorry, they are not the best, she doesn't like to sit still):

 

[Kelsie2290]

It is kind of hard to see in the pictures, but it looks like pinfeathers coming in? This time of year molting is not unusual. Some birds do like to pluck/eat the pin feathers off of other birds, so if you do see somebody doing that you'll want to take steps to stop them. Here is a nice article on molting http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/217/moulting-a-natural-process