Molting?

[mertzee]

New chickens mom here...One of my chickens has been acting really weird lately. One day she is broody and very aggressive when trying to collect the eggs while she was sitting on them. She has stopped laying now for about a week or so now and this morning she seems to be molting as there feathers everywhere and hers seems to come out easily. Is this a process or what?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Actually it's quite normal for hens to molt after being broody. It's part of them returning to healthy, laying condition. This is not the same as feather loss due to the broody patch which is the hen deliberately pulling out her own belly feathers.

 

[Perris]

what rosemarythyme said

 

[aart]

New chickens mom here...One of my chickens has been acting really weird lately. One day she is broody and very aggressive when trying to collect the eggs while she was sitting on them. She has stopped laying now for about a week or so now and this morning she seems to be molting as there feathers everywhere and hers seems to come out easily. Is this a process or what?

How old is she, in weeks or months?
Was she full on broody for sure, did you break her or did she hatch some chicks?

I ask because most birds will fuss when having eggs taken from under them.
My go-to signs of a broody:
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?

If she's between about 14-18 months old, and yo live in the northern hemisphere, it's prime time for egg production to slow/stop and molting to begin.

 

[mertzee]

How old is she, in weeks or months?
Was she full on broody for sure, did you break her or did she hatch some chicks?

I ask because most birds will fuss when having eggs taken from under them.
My go-to signs of a broody:
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?

If she's between about 14-18 months old, and yo live in the northern hemisphere, it's prime time for egg production to slow/stop and molting to begin.

I live in TN and I don’t guess she was full on broody but she stayed on the nest majority of day and when I collected the eggs she was very unhappy about it and she pecked super hard and I had to push her away from the nest. Then at dark I had to move her to her own coop so my other hens wouldn’t attack her like they normally do. Her cluck did change. I don’t know how old she really is I’m guessing maybe a year? No submission posturing. No eggs for a week or more and she is losing feathers quite easily. I don’t know if this is process or what. Thanks!!