Molting Question

[ascott11]

I’m pretty sure my chickens have started their first molt. They’re about 18 months and there are a ton of feathers laying in the coop. My one hen has fully finished it and her feathers have all grown back. I’m concerned about my roo because he now only has one tail feather left. Is it normal for them all to fall out? My other roo still has a few although not as many as usual. The one just looks so strange with one tail feather! Here’s a picture from a couple of days ago when he still had a couple feathers left.

 

[NatJ]

I’m concerned about my roo because he now only has one tail feather left. Is it normal for them all to fall out?

Yes.

Sometimes the tail feathers all fall out at once, and sometimes they fall out & regrow a few at a time, but it is normal for them to all get replaced while the chicken is molting. It just looks different depending on how that particular chicken is doing it. The chickens who lose more feathers at a time are usually the ones who get done soonest

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yes, that is a molt. Some chickens are fast molters, some are slow molters. It's not about how fast feathers grow back, it's about how fast they fall out. Some chickens lose feathers so slowly it can take months for all the feathers to fall out. It's hard to tell that these are even molting by looking at them. Some seem to dump all their feathers at one time. These can be over the molt in a month or so. Most are in between these extremes.

Fast molters are usually preferred. Most hens stop laying when they molt so the faster they get over the molt the sooner they get back to laying. How fast the feathers fall out is controlled by genetics.

This forum sometimes holds molting contests. This link is to 2018's contest. If you look through it you'll see that yours don't look as bad as they could.

Molting Contest

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-best-worst-chicken-molt-pics.1269409/page-15