Leghorn, Molting or just stoped laying for good.

[slschul3]

I have an older leghorn that got her yellow color back in her beek, feet and legs. My question is will a molt cause this or is this the end of her egg laying career?

 

[Wyandottes7]

Has she not been laying? When a bird stops laying (for any reason, a molt for example), the yellow color returns because she isn't putting pigments into egg yolks. She should start laying again.

 

[slschul3]

Thanks that you answered my question. No she hasn't been laying and she finished molting about 2 weeks ago. i had been doing research about molting but it wasn't clear to me if they only put color back on if they totaly stoped or just stoped for molting..

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Some how I doubt that chickens only molt in order to grow a fresh new suit of feathers for cold weather. Some part of the molt in my poor opinion is connected to hatching and brooding chicks in the up coming spring. Otherwise why molt in the late fall. Most of my youngest hens and roosters start molting about August and are finishing by the time Fall had fell. The oldest tended to hang on to their feathers until fall and finish their molt by Thanksgiving or Christmas. Even then a close examination of the back, tail, and neck hackles will usually reveal pen or blood feathers that have yet to mature.

If you dress or pluck a BYC you'll find that it has a funny nose looking thing on its backside. This is the chicken's oil gland and your chickens use the oil it produces to preen its feathers to enhance the feathers' water repelling qualities.