Does summer heat cause severe molt?

[QueenFromage]

In this bad heat (it’s 100 degrees every day in Utah during this drought!), my Wyandotte is suddenly doing a hard molt. She’s 3 years old. She and our other hen free range our backyard and have plenty of shade and cold water. She is losing so many feathers!there’s a bald spot the size of my hand on her back. I don’t see new feathers growing in. Is this a reaction to our sudden heat?

 

[nuthatched]

Mine molt in the dead of winter, so I think they do it on purpose, whenever the weather is unfavorable, to make us worry.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Stress can cause molting, so it's possible.