How can you tell if a hen is molting?

[Mskayladog]

The hen I have is loosing her feathers not that it is affecting her appearance. I wonder if she is molting and that might also be one of the reasons she is not laying.

 

[centrarchid]

Moulting invovles the loss and immediate regeneration of lost feathers. Look for new more intensely colored feathers that appear shorter and have "juicy" blood filled base. They are called blood feathers. Your hen has likely been replacing flight feathers for last month or so but now feather replacment rate will accelerate and also include body feathers. Feather replacement is physiologically stressfull and competes for nutrition that otherwise goes to egg production. With most breeds and individuals the egg production slows down or even stops as moult really gets underway and egg production will not resume until until moult complete.

Dometic breeds selected for egg production give more resources to egg production and sometimes at the expense of moulting so egg production in those can occur although at a reduced rate when moulting is most intense.