Is this typical molting for a 15 week old?

[Twinklin]

My BSL has lost most of her tail feathers. She had a nice beautiful full tail and now she's down to only a few feathers. I've never been through a molt and since they're still pre-egg laying I didn't really expect them to molt much this year. For the most part the molting I've noticed on the others has been very minimal so far. I have seen pictures of some very drastic molts and know losing a chunk of tail feathers is no where near what a molt could be, but wanted to make sure this was normal since she's so young and she hasn't really lost feathers anywhere else that I can tell.

Taken today


This was what she looked like before, about 2 weeks ago.

 

[Wyandottes7]

Yes, this is quite normal.

Chickens go through three molts before they get their adult feathers. Often times, they will drop lots of feathers at once (even more than what your bird is experiencing!).

 

[Twinklin]

Thanks. I had assumed it was just a molt but I'm a paranoid new chicken mom.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Yep. Just a juvenile molt, nothing to worry about. She's growing in her big girl feathers.

 

[aggiemae]

It's not really a "molt", it's more like loosing baby teeth. Pullets start to get their bigger "adult" sized feathers around this age. Its more pronounced with some birds than with others but you can expect to start seeing lots of feathers floating around you coop and yard.