molting and brooding

[Annasg]

Is there a time frame around molting and brooding? Mine are molting and it is the end of January in Tennessee. Weather is fair, not real cold. I am kind of expecting my hens to begin brooding before long but I am very new to this part of the process. Answers anyone?

 

[Ridgerunner]

You don’t get guarantees with chicken behaviors. We can tell you what normally happens with our flocks but I can come up with plenty of exceptions to what normally happens with my flock.

Chickens can molt any time of the year for a variety of reasons. The normal time though is in the fall and winter when the days get shorter. They quit laying, shed their feathers, and use the nutrition that was going into egg production to grow new feathers. Some can be over the molt in a month, some might take several months. Some start laying as soon as the molt is finished, some wait for the longer warmer days of spring.

My hens normally do not go broody until well into spring, it’s often May or June before the first one. But you read posts all the time on here where hens go broody all year around. If you use lights to give them a longer day, maybe heat the coop, or feed them feed extra high in protein they are more likely to go broody in winter than if you don’t do that. Some hens never go broody, some go broody several times a year.

 

[Annasg]

Thank you Ridgerunner. Since we are in almost the same climate zone, I take your info to be more practical than some I have read from different climates. This is very helpful. Thank you again.