Molting/Moulting only down?

[Mother of Chaos]

Hi all, I’ve done a search on this topic (both spellings) and can’t find a specific discussion.

Do chickens ever drop just their down during a molt?

Our Barred Rock is exploding down, everywhere she goes. I picked her up to check for signs of feather-pulling (didn’t see any), and as I set her down, a cloud of fluff appeared.

Hen Day is this Jan 14, so she’s a bit over 11 months. This would be her first adult molt. She’s eating well, laying daily the last four days after a break. She went broody twice this past summer, class is behaviors, so I don’t think she’s nest-building, although the photo might make one wonder. (Those are ceramic eggs.)

Is this normal?

 

[DemeterAD9]

Yes it’s normal and it doesn’t look like just down to me but rather a lot of body feathers and butt fluff. Down feathers are the smaller fluffs under their patterned body feathers. They’ll drop their wing and tail feathers here and there but the body feathers seem to really come out in mass. Mine seem to drop about half their feathers, get some pin feathers coming in then drop the other half so they aren’t typically completely naked.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Yes it’s normal and it doesn’t look like just down to me but rather a lot of body feathers and butt fluff. Down feathers are the smaller fluffs under their patterned body feathers. They’ll drop their wing and tail feathers here and there but the body feathers seem to really come out in mass. Mine seem to drop about half their feathers, get some pin feathers coming in then drop the other half so they aren’t typically completely naked.

Thank you! I hadn’t realized that these were body feathers. Fingers crossed that she doesn’t wind up with those pitiful bare patches.