Molting

[Vellie]

Can a chicken go through there juvenile molt and then right into there winter molt? I have 2 Americana hens that started losing their feathers directly under their beaks about 6 months ago and still have not regrown them. I do not see any type of lice or mite. I am mostly concerned because of the winter months, they have a heat lamp plenty of water and get layer every day. What should or can I do and couple of my other hens are molting but in the back end.

 

[CMV]

Ameraucanas have beards, so I would trying to establish whether or not I had a picker in the flock. Any birds with a pouffy hair-do is at risk from picking. I had some picking at my EEs' beards by a feather picker a few months back. The beards were the least of what the picker was picking at, but it was the first concrete sign that maybe I had a problem going on. I started watching the flock more closely when I noted feather loss on the EEs' faces. Good thing I noted the problem because it rapidly turned into a huge mess.

It is not normal to go from one molt to another in rapid succession. The few times I have noted this happening were due to bugs and then to feather picking. I would start monitoring your flock more closely until you can figure out what's going on.

Good luck with them.