Molting issue?

[JTflwrldy]

Hello everyone! 1st year as a chicken grandma. We have a beautiful mix 5 in total of nice little ladies. Began 1st molt approximately 4 weeks ago. Egg production down ( I understand) .
But my little Americuna seems to be having a really difficult time. Has not left coop for 2 days. Hubby went in just now, gently picked her up and brought outside. She refused to put her feet down? Acting limp?
So...he brought her back into coop, bulked up her bedding and set her into comfort.
Is this normal?
Since this is our 1st year we just don't know what normal is.
Thank you for any advice

 

[DobieLover]

Hello everyone! 1st year as a chicken grandma. We have a beautiful mix 5 in total of nice little ladies. Began 1st molt approximately 4 weeks ago. Egg production down ( I understand) .
But my little Americuna seems to be having a really difficult time. Has not left coop for 2 days. Hubby went in just now, gently picked her up and brought outside. She refused to put her feet down? Acting limp?
So...he brought her back into coop, bulked up her bedding and set her into comfort.
Is this normal?
Since this is our 1st year we just don't know what normal is.
Thank you for any advice

Is she having a hard molt (loosing LOTS of feathers at once)? If so, are is just very uncomfortable.
Offer her some sardines several times a week to help boost animal based protein. They seem to crave that during molt.

 

[RubelliteRose]

One of my girls has a rough time with molting- doesn't want to be handled, wants to sleep in the nest box away from everyone else, looks half naked - but she always leaves the coop during the day even if she lays around in the run instead of free ranging with the others.
Is your girl eating and drinking at all? She may be dehydrated.
We give our flock scrambled eggs sometimes during molting. They seem to appreciate the extra protein.
Hope your girl starts to feel better soon!

 

[21hens-incharge]

You mention "first year".
How old are the birds?

If under a year molting is not likely the issue.

 

[JTflwrldy]

You mention "first year".
How old are the birds?

If under a year molting is not likely the issue.

Well, they are right at 1yr. Feather loss is ginormous quantity

 

[21hens-incharge]

Well, they are right at 1yr. Feather loss is ginormous quantity

If they are dropping a ton of feathers they likely have a lot of pin feathers coming in. That gets very uncomfortable. They also get a bit drained as growing new feathers takes a lot of energy.

If my birds are molting heavily I up the protein with canned mackerel twice a week. Many people offer a handful of kitten food during hard molts. I never have. I use the fish.
I feed all flock or flock raiser every morning year round since I tend to have a few elderly non layers in my flock it is also higher protein than layer feed. I still keep layer feed in the feeder too.

 

[RubelliteRose]

Well, they are right at 1yr.

Several of my birds molted at one year too. They also seem to be the ones who have the hardest molts each year .