Molting?

[Dorothy522]

Hello! New chicken mom here. I’ve got 15 chickens all at 15 weeks old. They look like crap right now and I’m trying to figure out if it’s one of their juvenile molts or something else. I’ll attach pics. You can see the white tips on their heads and how scraggly they look. Also, coop looks like a bunch of feather pillows exploded. Everyone is eating and drinking fine, no one seems lethargic or sick.

 

[sourland]

They're molting. Those are pin/blood feathers on their heads and necks.

 

[Ponypoor]

Hello! New chicken mom here. I’ve got 15 chickens all at 15 weeks old. They look like crap right now and I’m trying to figure out if it’s one of their juvenile molts or something else. I’ll attach pics. You can see the white tips on their heads and how scraggly they look. Also, coop looks like a bunch of feather pillows exploded. Everyone is eating and drinking fine, no one seems lethargic or sick.

I know that feather pillow exploding look. My 11 month old pullet is going through a massive molt! I have been living feathers in the barn since July, and they all particularly love my one horse’s stall! It’s always full of feathers! But poor Dorothy beats them all!

This is my sad Dorothy the 11 month old pullet, I told her in a few weeks she will again be resplendent like before

 

[SayChicken]

Hello! New chicken mom here. I’ve got 15 chickens all at 15 weeks old. They look like crap right now and I’m trying to figure out if it’s one of their juvenile molts or something else. I’ll attach pics. You can see the white tips on their heads and how scraggly they look. Also, coop looks like a bunch of feather pillows exploded. Everyone is eating and drinking fine, no one seems lethargic or sick.

Hi! Mine are 14 weeks and although I don’t have a ‘feather explosion’ look in the coop there are definitely feathers. And although there are no bare patches on my birds I was thinking their feathers look ‘loose’. I didn’t think such young birds molted. I was glad to see your post so I guess everything is fine. I’ll look at what I can offer then to give them some extra protein.

 

[Idaho Chicken Bungalow]

Chickens look weird without tail feathers.

 

[Mrs. K]

Almost always...really I can't think of an exception to this rule of thumb:
If they are eating, active and bright eyed and curious, well then they are fine.

 

[PinkFrostina]

Hi, I’ve got three americana roosters. One of which does not have much of a tail. We thought it would eventually grow in, but he’s…almost a year old and no tail. Is this normal?

 

[nuthatched]

Hi, I’ve got three americana roosters. One of which does not have much of a tail. We thought it would eventually grow in, but he’s…almost a year old and no tail. Is this normal?

It will grow in next molt

 

[PinkFrostina]

Oh ok! Thank you so much!