Molting, or What??

[Chick423]

Hi Everyone,

I need your expertise on this matter. I have yet to experience my chickens go through their first molt. All my girls are atleast 12 months old and the oldest is 19 months old. I live in Arizona and its extremely hot here now, so Im not sure what to make of these girls.

I have 15 hens and 1 Silkie Rooster, his name is Seymour. He loves all his girls and is a very well mannered boy. Ive never seen him be very rough with any of the girls but these two girls seem to be his favorite, so Im not sure if he's causing this.

I have checked all the girls for mites, treated them, the coop, the run and wormed them all. I have seen no signs of mites and no symptoms of any possible disease or situations. They still lay, eat, drink and dig the crap out of their area!

Can any of you give me any ideas? Please keep the comments nice, as I am a new chicken owner so there may be something Im missing or not doing correctly. Hopefully these

pics get put up correctly. The Wyandotte is fine, I just posted the pic of her to show the normal patch Seymour causes. The other 2 pics are the americaunas Im worried about. All my other girls are good.

 

[JaeG]

I have an Orpington who was not quite a year old when she did her first molt (she's still molting out - I'm in the southern hemisphere so it's winter). Her sisters have not molted so I have no idea why she has. I too checked for parasites but she's fine.

Pullets will molt at around 18 months old so are your girls that are molting the older ones? It could've also been the heat you are experiencing that brought on the molt. It doesn't look like rooster damage - it definitely looks like they are molting.

 

[Chick423]

Yes the 2 that look this way are the older ones. Thanks for the reply! Does anyone else have any ideas?

 

[rebrascora]

I would agree that it looks like they are moulting and at 19 months old that pretty much nails it. I'm surprised that they are still laying, but be prepared for that to tail off or even stop suddenly. They sometimes get a bit depressed with it but that might have something to do with the miserable damp autumn weather which usually coincides with moulting here.
Some people increase the protein level of their flock's diet during moult, either by switching to a higher protein flock raiser and providing oyster shell as a side order or treating them to a bit of meat or fish or eggs a couple of times a week. Cat food is quite useful as a treat to increase their protein intake short term too.

 

[centrarchid]

I see a health issue preceding the molt. Note broken hackle feathers. During molt, the feather fall out of skin. Those feathers are broken with base still in skin.

Look into what causes feathers to be broken off like that and make adjustments to prevent next year.