Molting?

[ivyboo]

I have 3 Isa browns and a Barred Rock. The Isa Browns I bought as chicks in March so they are almost a year old. One of them I noticed has a patch of feathers missing at the back of neck. I can see it looks like a porcupine in that area. Is this the start of molting for her? The month of December I got no eggs from any of the girls. Within the past 2 days I got 3. There is no way for me to tell who is laying what. I wish I could figure it out as someone is laying them on the ground. This is my first winter having chickens, so everything is new to me.

 

[Welshies]

Do you have a picture?
A rooster?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have 3 Isa browns and a Barred Rock. The Isa Browns I bought as chicks in March so they are almost a year old. One of them I noticed has a patch of feathers missing at the back of neck. I can see it looks like a porcupine in that area. Is this the start of molting for her? The month of December I got no eggs from any of the girls. Within the past 2 days I got 3. There is no way for me to tell who is laying what. I wish I could figure it out as someone is laying them on the ground. This is my first winter having chickens, so everything is new to me.

Some will go through a neck molt in early spring. It generally only occurs around the head and neck where a full molt generally occurs in the fall to early winter and includes the whole body.

Neck molts will cause a halt in laying, but nothing like a full body molt. So you will have to see how much gets molted.

Occasionally I will see a floor egg. If you have enough nestboxes, and your hens seem to like them than it could be a hen who is being disturbed and chased out of the box, or one that isn't listening to her body cues.

Sometimes eggs get kicked out of the boxes, and sometimes hens make floor nests, so where you are finding the eggs could help figure out what is happening.

 

[SD Chicken Wrangler15]

Thanks Oldhen, that clears up my question. I was getting worried about my 2 Buff Orpingtons losing their feathers. They have pretty much stopped laying eggs too. I hope they start laying when their feathers grow back.

 

[DrFeathers]

My SLWyandotte stopped laying and developed bare patch on back of neck same as you described - my first year with chickens so haven’t had a true molt yet but this didn’t seem like one. Thanks all, this posting makes that situation make sense now.

 

[Below frigid]

Have 2 ten month old hens molting right now? 10 months and being in the middle of winter? Wondering if the feather loss is from something else?

 

[Welshies]

Have 2 ten month old hens molting right now? 10 months and being in the middle of winter? Wondering if the feather loss is from something else?

Nope, normal.

 

[Below frigid]

Nope, normal.

Thanks, this is our first and rapidly expanding flock. We did lose one we adopted as an adult. She just keeled over one night? Laying fine, actually had a egg in her vent when she died, not bound. I got an egg from her a day or two before and this one was not quite ready.

 

[westgl]

My chickens have Not Molted yet, Has anyone else had their chickens Molt this winter Yet, or is it still to early for their first Molt? I have 7 Barred Rocks

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

My chickens have Not Molted yet, Has anyone else had their chickens Molt this winter Yet, or is it still to early for their first Molt? I have 7 Barred Rocks

How old are they? Where are you located? Do you run extra lighting?