My 1-yr old Barred Rock has lost A LOT of feathers in the last couple days.... A LOT. Being fairly new to chickens, I'm not sure if this is normal (I'm thinking molting?) Is this something that happens after they're a year old? Should I expect it to happen every summer? More often? Not at all?!?
We have had a week of unusually hot weather for Maine - low to mid 90's; lots of humidity; mid to high 70's overnight. [Normal would be mid 80's during the days and down to the 50's/60's at night.]
I've looked her over and she has no bald spots, or bleeding so I don't think she's pulling feathers out. [Which was my first thought, as she is the only survivor of her flock from a fisher attack, and has been alone for the last 5 weeks, and I thought she might be going a bit stir-crazy.]
The feathers are small & fluffy - no wing or tail feathers.
Any thoughts?
We have had a week of unusually hot weather for Maine - low to mid 90's; lots of humidity; mid to high 70's overnight. [Normal would be mid 80's during the days and down to the 50's/60's at night.]
I've looked her over and she has no bald spots, or bleeding so I don't think she's pulling feathers out. [Which was my first thought, as she is the only survivor of her flock from a fisher attack, and has been alone for the last 5 weeks, and I thought she might be going a bit stir-crazy.]
The feathers are small & fluffy - no wing or tail feathers.
Any thoughts?
