Losing feathers, please help

Pics
Date sort Score sort
The Welch Chickens said:
Is it dangerous for them to be molting right now? It’s quite cold where we are; 24 degrees right now
Click to expand...
They might just be going through a partial molt as they still look fairly well-feathered to me, but if they keep losing feathers and become half-naked, do you have any heat source you could provide them? We heat our coop to 35/40F so at that temp I don't worry when they're practically naked.
 
Debbie292d said:
They might just be going through a partial molt as they still look fairly well-feathered to me, but if they keep losing feathers and become half-naked, do you have any heat source you could provide them? We heat our coop to 35/40F so at that temp I don't worry when they're practically naked.
Click to expand...
If they lose a lot from this molt, we would get a hear source for them. As of right now, we don’t have one, but we could easily purchase one.
 
The Welch Chickens said:
Is it dangerous for them to be molting right now? It’s quite cold where we are; 24 degrees right now
Click to expand...
It's not the best time of year for it but it happens. Protection from wind is a good idea and making sure she's tucked in with friends at night, but otherwise she looks fluffy enough that should be ok unless she starts to have large areas of exposed skin where she would lose heat faster (slower molts usually stay fluffier, while faster means more naked areas and less insulated as a result). One of my hens paused her molt for some reason just after starting back in Nov, and she's decided to resume it now of all times she could have picked. My area's lows have been down to 5F this past week; I make sure she sleeps tucked rightly between two fluffy friends and she's been fine so far. I also put a hen saddle on her when a "bald" (mostly pin feathers) area started forming on her back and that was all she needed to run around happily in the grand 10-13F daytime high temperatures yesterday.
 
nuthatched said:
It looks like their being plucked a bit, how big is their coop and what's their diet?
Click to expand...
The coop is 7 feet by 8 feet, and the run is 16 feet. There are 10 hens. They eat NatureWise layer pellets, which are 16% protein. They also have some varied treats occasionally, such a handful of scratch, fruits, and veggies.
1705875285541.png
 
DonyaQuick said:
It's not the best time of year for it but it happens. Protection from wind is a good idea and making sure she's tucked in with friends at night, but otherwise she looks fluffy enough that should be ok unless she starts to have large areas of exposed skin where she would lose heat faster (slower molts usually stay fluffier, while faster means more naked areas and less insulated as a result). One of my hens paused her molt for some reason just after starting back in Nov, and she's decided to resume it now of all times she could have picked. My area's lows have been down to 5F this past week; I make sure she sleeps tucked rightly between two fluffy friends and she's been fine so far. I also put a hen saddle on her when a "bald" (mostly pin feathers) area started forming on her back and that was all she needed to run around happily in the grand 10-13F daytime high temperatures yesterday.
Click to expand...
The coop is well protected from wind (but dry and well ventilated, of course). If they start to get bald, we will get a heat source for them.
 

Similar threads

The Welch Chickens
    • Like
Molting, but now there is some blood.
2
Replies
19
Views
1K
Wyorp Rock
Wyorp Rock
L
Feather loss.
2
Replies
12
Views
1K
TooCheep
T
C
Losing neck feathers
Replies
4
Views
866
Moments
M
Beccichka
Neck feathers
2
Replies
10
Views
2K
Beccichka
Beccichka
L
Losing LOTS of feathers, sickly
Replies
2
Views
809
azygous
azygous

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom