Eating feathers??

[BackyardinWales]

Is it normal for chickens to eat their own feathers during molting?

My young 'pullet' - of 16 weeks - fired out several of her feathers, and then ate them! (I say pullet in inverted commas because the consensus on here was she's a girl, but so far no comb,(let alone a red one) and no wattles, or is this what some of you have called a 'pea comb'?

She wants to be with her brothers, not the other girls. I just think her legs look more like the boys lol.

 

[sourland]

She's a pullet, and feather eating can be an indication of a low protein diet.

 

[OnlySympathy]

What do you feed? A lot of feather eating is caused by lack of protein. And yes she is a 100% a pullet

 

[BackyardinWales]

She's being fed grower pellets, veggies and mealworms. She's probably eating less than she should as she won't come down with the big girls, so I've taken to giving her her food on the boys roof. (In the photo.) So at least I know she is eating.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

She's being fed grower pellets, veggies and mealworms. She's probably eating less than she should as she won't come down with the big girls, so I've taken to giving her her food on the boys roof. (In the photo.) So at least I know she is eating.

She looks a lot like an Easter Egger to me - hawk-like bill, pea comb - but the yellow legs, instead of slate blue or willow green, give me pause.

 

[BackyardinWales]

She looks a lot like an Easter Egger to me - hawk-like bill, pea comb - but the yellow legs, instead of slate blue or willow green, give me pause.

She behaves more like a hawk some days lol.

She doesn't volunteer to go to bed since she was moved in with the nig girls, but I pick her up and put her in anyway. They were loud the first few days, now I think they tolerate they have no choice. To be honest, I just hope when she starts laying that it's a different coloured egg to the other girls.

 

[Perris]

She doesn't volunteer to go to bed since she was moved in with the nig girls, but I pick her up and put her in anyway. They were loud the first few days, now I think they tolerate they have no choice.

the big girls will be giving her a hard time to ensure that she knows that her place in the flock hierarchy is below them. As soon as she accepts that, they'll all get along fine.

 

[Perris]

She looks a lot like an Easter Egger to me - hawk-like bill, pea comb - but the yellow legs, instead of slate blue or willow green, give me pause.

The EE is an American concept (hardly a breed as such); in so far as we have it here, it's very vague and basically just indicates some (usually vanishingly small) chance of a heinz laying a blue-ish, green-ish or pink-ish egg.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

The EE is an American concept (hardly a breed as such); in so far as we have it here, it's very vague and basically just indicates some (usually vanishingly small) chance of a heinz laying a blue-ish, green-ish or pink-ish egg.

What breeds (or breed mixes) are grown for blue etc. egg laying in Europe? CCLs?