Molt question

[Altairsky]

My favorite hen is almost done molting. This is her first molt (she's a little over 1 year old).
She hasn't molt her wing feathers yet. Will she molt them later or is she gonna keep her wing feathers for another year?
Her sister is also molting, and she hasn't got new wing feathers either.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I took this excerpt from the link below. The entire article is an interesting read.

The birds will lose old feathers and grow a new set in the following order: head, neck, body, wings and tail.

https://bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/pubs...ather-loss-in-small-poultry-flocks_MF2308.pdf

 

[ChickyCh00k]

In my experience, the chickens do not lose ALL of their feathers all at once during every molt (some lose more than others). I've never had a completely bare chicken (I have seen pics of some who are nearly bare). Mine will get some bare (ish) spots here and there and look pretty raggedy for many weeks. They might lose a wing feather or 2 (but there are so many left that it isn't noticeable on the bird)... where I tend to notice it most is under the bum, back of neck, head, and chest.

Edited to add: Just because you don't *see* the molt in some areas, doesn't mean it didn't happen to some extent.

 

[thecatumbrella]

I have minimal molt experience, but even then, it seems like wing feathers are a rare find. Maybe those thick shafts give them staying power? Complete speculation, of course.

 

[Altairsky]

That's a very interesting article!
Hopefully she'll molt the wing feathers soon. She went past my fence twice inside my neighbor property and got stuck in there.
I thought she could fly the fence which is almost 9 feet tall. Since my neighbor property is currently on sale, there is nobody I can call to get the gate open and take her back. So I had to sneak in like a thief which is something I really hate to do.
So the second time she got into my neighbor property, I cut one of her wings... Just to find her into my neighbor property again a few hours later.
I swear, I hate cutting my birds wing more than culling them.
At that point, I noticed a hole in the netting: basically what happened? when the workers came into my neighbor property to cut the weeds, they used a string trimmer loaded with a metal blade and destroyed the fencing.
The hole had a mouse-trap shape that allowed my chickens to get out, but not go back in.
So this is really devastating me. I punished my favorite chicken for nothing. Her wing feathers were quite worn, so hopefully she'll get her wing back soon.
Her sister though, she's putting up a new tail, but her flight feathers are still the old ones.