Leg horn losing neck feathers

[our8girls]

Hello! We are new to raising chickens and absolutely love them. Today my husband noticed that one of our brown leghorns is losing her neck feathers. Both of our leghorns haven't been laying eggs for a couple of weeks, we thought it was the change in sunlight and started putting a light in the coop. Our other hens seem to be just fine. Also, the kids noticed that the leghorn losing her feathers whose name is Chip is paler then her sister Dale and she is the smallest one we have. She was always lighter but the kids really feel she's much paler than usual. All of our hens are about 8 months old. We do not see any mites or lice and they are free range. They get increased omega feed as well as whatever they want to forage. Just found out that they have been found eating styro-foam cooler. Which has been removed. Also they've been eating the cat's food. Could the leghorn's be molting this young? What should we do?

Thanks so much for this awesome website.

Tricia and family
(Billy, Chaybn,Gavyn,JewelyAnna, Esmae (our dog), Emma and Onyx (our cats), Chip, Dale, Sally, Mike, Arwin, Daffy, Whispers, and Rolo (the girls) and finally the fish!

 

[willowbranchfarm]

Yes they are probably molting.