How many of you have molting birds right now

[ebonykawai]

Many of mine are in a mini molt. A couple look terrible, lol.

 

[dancingbear]

In the fall, mine lose so many feathers that they have huge bare spots, and look like they've been in an explosion, but without the burns and injuries. When the feathers start to regrow, they sort of look like porcupines for awhile. That's what I call a full molt.

In the spring, they just seem to shed some winter feathers, egg production drops slightly, then they're all back to normal again. That's a light molt.

Right now, I have maybe 6 who look raggedy, with some bare spots, but they're still laying pretty well. I have increased the protein and made some other diet changes, that may be why I'm still getting lots of eggs.

 

[sundance]

mine look awful, but someone told me that rats pull their feathers out to line their beds, so I trek down to lowes for plaster of paris (about 6 bucks) mix with peanut butter and olive oil, put it where the hens can't get it,saw one little mouse the other day and he outran me with the shovel slapping everywhere i thought he might be hiding, can't put out regular rat poison, to many dogs and cats around. marrie

 

[SproutGirl]

Quote:
Rats pulling out your chickens' feathers! Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! That is awful! You know, we had some mice get into our garage last year and we purchased a small device from our local hardware store that emits an electronic pulse that is supposed to drive rodents crazy. You plug it into an electricity source, and it keeps the rodents away. It takes a little while to work, but it does work. We don't have any more mice in our garage. Maybe it could work in your chicken coop. You could try running an extension cord out to your coop, and suspend the device in the air so that it points downward and emits the sound waves (humans and birds can't hear them) downward and outward to repel the rodents.

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

All birds have a lighter moult in the spring and a heavier moult during the summer. Every bird on the property has been moulting lately, so there's lots of feathers to go around

 

[ChickieNikki]

Would anyone be willing to post pics? Here is a link to pics of my best friends' hens, and they were a fall hatch, so may be moulting, but some suggested mites...anyone's look like the ones in this post?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=199906

 

[lauralou]

I chart egglaying. I have one little Andalusian hen who hasn't laid an egg for several days. I'm not sure if she is molting. I'm keeping an eye on her.

It may just be that she is stressed because I moved her to a new pen.

 

[Portia]

I had a bunch that just came out of molt and a few that are still molting