Molting Habits

[Devyn Nagy]

Do chickens always molt at the same time normally? I'm asking because about a month ago (maybe closer to two by now) one of my hens began to molt, but none of the others showed any signs of molting. She molted about half of her feathers and recovered. Shortly after that, two more molted, and the original lost the other half of her feathers. Now one more is molting, and the other two haven't yet.
It also seems a bit late to still be covered in pin-feathers.
So, just wondering if this is normal behavior. (This is their first molt, by the way.)

Thanks!

 

[21hens-incharge]

It's normal.

I have many in heavy molt right now myself. A few started over a month ago and 2 haven't started yet.
I have had hens wait til January while others get it over with by the end of October.
My January molter was a leghorn who went from fully feathered to almost completely naked in just a few days. She molted when the HIGHS were just in the low teens. Had me worried to death. All was well in the end though.

 

[azygous]

If you were to have all your friends measure the rate that each of their hair grows, you would find out it varies greatly from an inch a month to far less, and far more. So it is with how chickens molt.

In fact, I have two chickens, maybe three it appears, that molt only every two years instead of every year, and one molts in summer. Some molt so discretely that you will barely notice when they seem to appear with a complete feather change after never seeming to have any bare patches, while others wait and lose all their feathers at once. I've had hens take so long to complete molt that they spend all winter with large bald patches.

So, there are no uniform rules to molt. It's determined to a great extent by genetics, and a lesser degree by a chicken's current health status. Some disorders and chronic disease will affect molt and feather regrowth.

One thing you can do to help your chickens get through molt and its huge drain on their protein reserves is to add some quality animal protein once a week to their diet. I open a can of mackerel and my flock of twenty-one consider it a fantastic treat. It does seem to get them through molt a little more quickly, and I'm grateful for the day when picking up a gallon of feathers a day is behind me for another year.

 

[Kriscam]

It's normal.

I have many in heavy molt right now myself. A few started over a month ago and 2 haven't started yet.
I have had hens wait til January while others get it over with by the end of October.
My January molter was a leghorn who went from fully feathered to almost completely naked in just a few days. She molted when the HIGHS were just in the low teens. Had me worried to death. All was well in the end though.

I've got the same worry about one of my girls who is massively molting as we're going into the coldest month of the year where we live. Did you need to provide any supplemental heat for your leghorn when she lost so many feathers in winter?

 

[21hens-incharge]

I've got the same worry about one of my girls who is massively molting as we're going into the coldest month of the year where we live. Did you need to provide any supplemental heat for your leghorn when she lost so many feathers in winter?

We made it an option for them. They were in a coop that measured 8x14 with 7 foot height.
We placed a sealed oil space heater in the end opposite of the roosts. NONE of the chickens including the naked leghorn would go anywhere near it.
I thought maybe it was because it's a "new" thing in there so unplugged it and observed behavior. Once it had fully cooled off (so within 2 hours) they were milling around right next to it.

What I learned is that not only did they not need it they definitely didn't want it.

 

[Mrs. K]

I agree they really don't need extra heat. God knows how? It seems so counter intuitive.

They do need wind protection.

Mrs K