Literature on feather replacement / molting patterns

[centrarchid]

This appears best section for this question even though poor fit.

I am trying to find literature pertaining to the pattern of feather replacement / molting in adults and pre-adult chickens. I vaguely remember seeing in an old text about two molting patterns in wings of production breed adults. One pattern was slow that enabled relatively concistent flight abilities and the other was very rapid, not unlike that with some ducks where flight capacity greatly reduced.

Information for pre-adult / juvenile chickens is really of interest. I want information on how many sets of feathers (flight related) an individual goes through from hatch to first adult set and how the feather replacement is patterned. Anyone know of publications that can help?

centrarchid

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't think this is exactly what you are looking for, but maybe it helps?

Mississippi State describes molting
http://msucares.com/poultry/management/poultry_feathers.html

Kansas State feather loss
http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/library/lvstk2/mf2308.pdf

 

[centrarchid]

Thanks Ridgerunner,

First link even better than one I vaguely remember. Has fast and slow molting types. Second link lacks pictures but provides good written description to start from.