Molting?... this time of the year?

[Dar]

Quote:
I am in Canada and my most of my girls just finished... a few have a more feathers to come in. My poor hens were almost nekked for the coldest days of winter so far

 

[aussieheelr]

Wow really? I feel dumb now, I thought they only molted in the fall? Boy don't I feel sheepish now. I had only 1 molt last fall so I was thinking we were skipping the moult, guess not.

Must be why I dropped from 7 a day to 0

 

[cwhit590]

I have one EE that is in the middle of a molt now....she looks awful!

Most of the others molted this fall....guess she missed the memo...

 

[destiny_56085]

I live in southwestern MN and all of my birds are in a heavy molt too. Christmas week we had decent temps in the 20-30's with 27" of snow. The next 2 weeks we dipped down to -20 to -35 below 0 with 40-50 below windchills. Last week we were back up in the +30's again. These are 50-60 degree temp swings so I can't blame my birds for being confused. I was getting roughly 18-24 eggs a day from my silkies and now I am down to just 2-3 a day. Since the weather was so nice last week I stripped all the pens and cleaned thoroughly. Now they are covered in blankets of feathers already. I picked up 1 of my white gals and it rained feathers off her. If they time it right, some just may be in perfect condition for some of the spring shows.

 

[WisconsinGardenChick]

Quote:
Logically, that seems like the best time to molt. Then grow in a heavy coat of feathers for the winter. Losing your winter coat halfway through seems really stupid. One of my BRs is almost completely bald on the back of her neck. I keep wanting to knit a little scarf for her...

 

[WisconsinGardenChick]

Many thanks to those in northern areas (MN, MI, Canada) who replied! What would I do w/o the people here? My first year of chicken-keeping would have been way more stressful than it needed to be.

I want to give my chickens more protein, since I've read here that's a good thing to do when they're growing new feathers. I read on a blog somewhere of someone who gives her chickens deer and elk liver - after it's been in the freezer a couple of weeks - long enough to kill any bugs or parasites. I had some turkey liver in the freezer, so I thawed it and gave them some this a.m. They loved it!

Anybody else feed them stuff like this during a molt?

Katherine

 

[Dar]

Quote:
I feed their eggs to them... Also If I am making a tuna or salmon sandwich I will give the leftover tuna or salmon to the chickens (I dont mix mayo with my tuna or my salmon) and also beef

 

[2DogsFarm]

Is it normal to not molt at all?

I have 5 almost-9mo pullets that haven't lost a huge amount of feathers yet.
I did see some fluff in the coop late in Summmer, then nothing. I find the occasional shed feather, but nothing that would make me think "molting"
They all look healthy, shiny and even a bit fat.

Lately I've noticed some of the Black Stars larger feathers on the floor of the coop, but nobody looks raggedy except for the Houdan whose head got pecked bald when I had to close them in the coop a couple days for subzero temps w/wicked windchill.
Even she is now growing feathers back instead of losing them.

Should I expect them to blow their feathers in Spring as a first molt?

 

[Dar]

Quote:
my chickens were hatched April 2 2008. This was their first noticeable molt at 18 months old