Hen stopped laying and losing feathers — normal molt or something wrong?

[Moroseta]

Hi everyone,


I have a hen that stopped laying eggs about a month ago. She’s around a year and a half old. Lately she stays by herself, but she still eats, drinks, and walks without any problems. However, she seems very sluggish and keeps isolating herself. She’s also losing feathers on her chest (between her legs) as well as on her wings and tail. She’s an ISA Brown layer.


What could be the cause? Could it just be the molting phase due to the winter season?

 

[TOMTE]

Pics?

Probably molting, but pictures would help. Have you noticed any mites? That's another reason for lethargy and feather loss.

 

[Debbie292d]

My guess is she's going through a molt. I have a couple of silkies like this right now acting about the same way.

 

[TOMTE]

Here's one of my more heavily molting girls, to compare yours to.

She's amazingly outgoing and friendly for a molting chicken though, so she isn't isolating herself the way most do.

However, here's my other girl who's also molting.

You can see she looks uncomfortable, poofed up, and doesn't want to do much interacting with anybody or anything.

 

[Debbie292d]

Here's one of mine. After a year, she's almost over it, but won't sit with them. She sleeps either in a nest box by herself or up there on top. She was an orange (buff) frizzle silkie prior to molt. Looks like she's going to be a rust color now.

 

[Moroseta]

Here are some photos! I really hope it’s just molting. I haven’t noticed any mites so far, and the other hens are fine and don’t show any problems.

 

[TOMTE]

You've definitely got yourself a molting bird!

These are new feathers coming in.

Avoid handling her as much as possible, molting is a painful process as those pin feathers start poking through. Plus, if they break they can bleed quite a bit.

If you're not feeding a high protein food (20% is a good amount but some people feed as high as 24-25% during molt), you can make the switch or supplement her diet with things like scrambled eggs, (unprocessed) meat, black soldier fly larvae, mealworms, or cat food.

 

[Moroseta]

Oh that’s great to hear! I was really worried.

For about a week I’ve been feeding them their regular feed plus some soy to increase the protein.

How long does this process usually last? And why don’t the other hens show the same symptoms?

 

[TOMTE]

Oh that’s great to hear! I was really worried.

For about a week I’ve been feeding them their regular feed plus some soy to increase the protein.

How long does this process usually last? And why don’t the other hens show the same symptoms?

The short answer: from timing to intensity to duration, every molt is different.

Long answer:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/molting-all-you-need-to-know.76895/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/feather-molt-an-in-depth-look-at-molting.74666/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/what-happens-when-chickens-molt.67366/