More than half of our flock is in a hard molt this year; it's very weird. That almost never happens; normally, when they molt, they molt lightly to where in some birds it's barely noticeable. The same thing happened to us; we had a four year old mixed breed hen who seemed healthy in every way, except that she was in a hard molt, I've never seen her like that. I noticed that she didn't eat breakfast one morning about a week ago, but that same morning she was begging for treats and was fine, and then on subsequent days she was eating and drinking normally. She just couldn't roost as high as normal and I assumed that was because she had lost most of her flight feathers. I was worried about her being cold because it has been so cold here, but she always seemed to have a buddy to snuggle with, so I didn't worry too much, she was a little quiet, but seemed fine otherwise.. This morning I found her dead; she apparently fell from her perch and was dead when she hit the ground. Her weight was good; she was not fat or underweight. Good color prior to today. Nothing to see other than the feather loss. We feed Flock Raiser, sometimes layer, cracked corn, sometimes scratch grain once in a while. They've been having cracked corn at night lately due to the cold.
It just makes me wonder if there IS a link between molting and aging or mortality, as I have a friend who has an old hen who has molted this year several times. Most of our hens that are in a hard molt this year are older hens.
