PaChickenmom, I burst out laughing when I read your reply! I have spent those same 20 minutes "rearranging" chickens in the henhouse (which I can only reach into), which annoys them, and, obviously, makes no difference because they go right back to wherever they were (including the nestbox which is a drag). The whole time I'm doing it I am acutely aware of how absurd it is and what a farmer I am not; it's hard not to picture a wise old farmer shaking his/her head in disdain, muttering about "what things are coming to".
In our case, the molter (one of the 2 elders) has been quite unpleasant to the three youngsters since they joined the pair in the summer. Now she is hanging out on her own (her one compatriot has been broody and insisting on being, eggless, in the nestbox; speaking of "rearranging" - we take her out several times a day to try to break her of it but no luck so far and it has been a month) and feeling vulnerable I suppose. They do, indeed, look plucked....only worse. Like a bad plucker worked on her. And when she shakes or flaps her wings a cloud of feathers appears-it's so pitiful. I guess the only thing to do is watch them and hope for the best. I wish I knew, better, what provokes the start of the molt-I thought it was hormonal in response to some light/temp prompt but it doesn't seem like that's working all that well. She is "older"...3, 31/2...not sure that's a factor.
