Molt and/or lice??

[Newchickadee30]

We have extremely cold winters here so during the winters we have the cozy coops and heat lamps going.
I turned them off as it’s been getting warmer and some of my chicken started losing feathers around their necks and a few actually stopped laying. Some of my hens are 18 months, others are coming up on a year old and one ISA with an unknown older age.
I’ve been told chickens tend to molt in the fall, however I’m wondering if when I turns off the heat lamps that tricked them to thinking it’s ‘shorter days’ and triggered a molt.
I’ve attached some photos. Could you tell me if this looks like a molt?
My one older ISA hen looks the worse. She’s lost lots around her neck and back. If you lift her feathers you can see lots of pin feathers coming through and the ones that do have feathers are very fluffy almost chick like white feathers.
I do not see any bugs or crusty build up on their skin or feathers.
Now to make things more puzzling to me, I have a few broody hens I have separated into a separate quiet coop. I was candling the eggs the other day and I noticed a bug crawling across the egg...looked like lice....ekkkkk.
Now I’m worried it’s lice that is causing the feather loss!?!
I purchased the doctor doom poultry lice spray.
can I spray my broody hens on eggs or will it hurt the hatching eggs?
I also plan to spray my other coop. Will it harm eggs for human consumption?
ANOTHER thing lol is I’m pregnant. I’m having my husband do all the spraying, but I’m wondering when is it safe to go in the coop after spraying. I might call the company to ask about that.

 

[Mamatomany123]

It does look like a molt to me. I'm not sure if the heat lamp triggered it or not but when they molt they most likely wont lay. My EE went through a molt at 9 months old and didnt lay for 3 months.

 

[Lollychicken]

Yep, molting. The barred rock looking hen (second picture) has the odd looking casing around her neck feathers, this is new feathers coming in

 

[cmom]

How are your birds doing? I had some that I thought were molting but it turned out to have mites. When I checked the birds over during the day I didn't see anything on them so I thought they were just molting except they didn't seem to be improving so then I went out to that coop after they had went to roost and had been in for a little while and put on a headlamp so my hands were free and checked them over and sure enough I saw little bugs on them which I thought might be mites. At first I used DE and sprinkled it everywhere including on the birds but atfer a couple of weeks they weren't improving so then I got some permethrin and sprayed inside their coop everywhere and sprayed the birds. I did some research as then I found some in another coop. Then I sprayed inside all of the coops everywhere every crack and crevice including the nest boxes. It took several weekly applications but I did eventually get rid of them. I sprayed thoroughly weekly in all of the coops. I bought a gallon sprayer with a wand to reach into the hard to reach areas, as well as the cracks and crevices. I have had some issues since but immediately started treating weekly for 3 or 4 weeks then stop. I was curious if there was a preventative but discovered if used consistently the pests can develop a resistance to the permethrin. If I see anything I begin weekly treatments and so far so good. I discovered during fly season it also eliminated the flies and as a bonus there is no egg withdrawal period. When I put new shavings in the nest boxes I also put poultry dust in the shavings which also has permethrin in it. Hope your birds are well and good luck...

 

[cmom]

Yep, molting. The barred rock looking hen (second picture) has the odd looking casing around her neck feathers, this is new feathers coming in

Could also be lice. Lice will lay their eggs on the neck feathers. If it is I would spray the birds with permethrin.

 

[Lollychicken]

Could also be lice. Lice will lay their eggs on the neck feathers. If it is I would spray the birds with permethrin.

They lay their eggs in clumps. I personally have never seen and on the neck, but I have seen big clumpy egg piles under wings and around the butt. This here however looks like molting. If you are unsure and want to check for lice however, I normally check around the butt, wings and chest area. You should see little brown insect in these areas, as for the bug seen on an egg, you could check the broody hens and carefully dig through the nest boxes

 

[cmom]

I had a bird that had lice eggs on her neck feathers. First I took a fine toothed comb and got what I could off of her. I wish I had taken a picture now.