MOLTING?

[hezevz]

My four girls are 7 months old, all laying beautiful eggs. They have yet to molt.

What should I expect? When should I expect it to happen? Anything special I should do other then lots of protein in their diet?

Thanks!

 

[94countrygrl]

Hi there and welcome to BYC! Molting is really hard on chickens... normally chickens molt in the spring and in the fall.. this is to get their warmer feathers for winter and their lighter feathers for summer. Your chickens will probably molt at around 1 year... most often you can expect all chickens to molt at or slightly after hitting their first year!

Molting is totally normal, make sure to have plenty of good protein, also give them some oyster shell or as a cheaper even better thing, just crush up some of their used egg shells and feed them that! its the same as oyster shells (these are calcium which is needed in feather creation! ) make sure they have plenty of food, and keep them from stress.

Also egg production will either stop, or dramatically drop. but will pick up once the molt is over.

Your chickens may get bald spots or look like a porqupine... dont pull out little quails, these are new feathers.

Also, do a little research online or get a book from the library about molting chickens!

Hope this helped! and enjoy! ps. dont worry, they may look ugly for a while, but they will get their feathers back soon!!

 

[hezevz]

Okay good. I'm all ready then. I have oyster shells available for them all the time. I'm excited for their first molt to see how funny they look. my big weirdos.

 

[Cindy in PA]

Your girls shouldn't have a real molt until next season.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Your girls shouldn't have a real molt until next season.

x2 in the fall.