how to get chicken to molt broken feathers?

[horsechick]

hi all. how do we get a chicken to molt any broken feathers so they will grow new ones to show them? thanks!

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

pull them

 

[Black Feather]

You can pull them out so that a new feather will grow in in it's place, but I tend to wait until the birds molts naturally. I've pulled the odd tail feather out, but never a wing feather yet. I worry about damaging the feather follicle. If the feathers are the smaller ones then go ahead and pull them out by grasping them at their base and giving a firm, quick pull in the opposite direction. Many feathers come out very easily this way. I usually do only one at a time.

Cheers,
Urban Coyote

 

[horsechick]

Hi,
Thank you,
How long does it take for them to grow a new one?

We have some D'uccles we are going to show and with the large feet feathers they can break them.
Thought I'd try to get them off and new ones in.
Thanks again,
Angela

 

[MWchickens]

just pulled the feather out ..I pulled straight out. of coarse after checking to make sure they were not blood feathers!! the show chicken our silverlaced wyandotte was really calm about it:cd..my sweet BR tried to peck me...

the other hen just let out a loud bwawwk and was done.. now heres hoping that Lacey's feathers will grow in before the PNPA show in mid october this year!!

I show my barred rock but I think she maybe dq'd she doesnt have a completely yellow beak and her tail is a little high but she is still a pullet...she also had a slight greenish black sheen on her wings??? wha???

VAS is dis??

 

[xyresicchick]

i am wondering this as well, i have one chicken who had broken wing feathers and she has a bald patch on her backside from the rooster and i need to find a way to make her grow new feathers. i would just give her a saddle, but whenever i pick her up she flaps her wings wildly and had whipped me with her bare feather shafts a few times and they are HARD. i have her out of the pen now but she is taking a LONG time to grow anything and i am really wondering if she will even get those feathers back now because she has not had any feathers for so long. i think she hasnt grown any new ones because it has been summer.... but she just looks so awful. plucking isn't an option for me because the feathers she is missing are already GONE and the feathers that i want her to lose are her primary wing feathers and i dont want to hurt her. :\\

 

[BarnGoddess01]

I had a poultry judge tell me to withold food and water for 3 days (stress them) to force them into a moult. You need to do this at least 2 months prior to the show.

 

[happyhensny]

It can take 3 months for a new feather to grow in.

 

[xyresicchick]

I withheld food and water from her for two days but she was looking sort of pale and sluggish and I felt awful about it, so I gave in and gave her water with electrolytes in it, then gave her food (she ate so fast she almost choked on the food it got clogged up in her throat, so I helped her by massaging it down) then I added the water to the food and mixed it up, it made a nice mash and she ate like a maniac. I hope she moults soon but i am not sure if she will because I dont think I stressed her long enough. I hope it was enough for it... because I felt awful doing it to her.

My poor poor, ugly looking, horrendous chicken.

 

[drumstick diva]

I don't think any show is worth stressing her like that. It's not good to go back and forth with no food, then food and so on. It will do alot more damage than just stress. Her heart could give out.