Molting

[Ilene]

What time of year do the chickens molt?

 

[Faraday40]

Mine are molting now (fall) - which is very common. They technically could molt at any time. If they are under 1 year, they may not molt.

 

[aart]

It's the decrease in day length that usually triggers a bird to molt.
Mine usually start around the beginning of August when the decrease accelerates,
but it's very variable as Faraday40 points out.

 

[Faraday40]

These 2 are molting right now. The darker one is ahead & most of her feathers have grown back.

These pics are from a couple yrs ago. Precious had a very hard molt & looked like a porcupine. Ouch!

Here's when the new feathers were growing in:

 

[Hensndoes]

What time of year do the chickens molt?

Now.

 

[Embalmergirl]

Oh it's now! My Barred rock has started to molt. Looks like chickens are exploding in my backyard.

 

[Faraday40]

Oh it's now! My Barred rock has started to molt. Looks like chickens are exploding in my backyard.

Or someone had a massive pillow fight in the backyard!

That's another good one! They're so funny-looking w/o tails.

 

[BaronVonP]

Mine are losing feathers all over the backyard and the coop, it's quite amazing the amount of feathers they have.

 

[lazy gardener]

Ideally, late summer, early fall. However, it could be any time. I live in Winter Wonderland! I had a RIR who would go through a HARD molt every year between December and January. This gal looked like a bad plucking job in the poultry case at my grocer.