moulting - when does it happen?

[spish]

ive been reading about moulting and it seems the norm is that chickens moult in the autumn??
i have a bunch of chickens who seem to be moulting now..so am a little worried its too early?

also would you say these the brahma in this pic is moulting/roos fav/being feather picked by someone, or a mix of all 3? i icked her up 2 days back, guy said she was moulting and roos fav (hence the bald back which u dont see well in the pic)
i posted this pick in the 'what breed' section, and someone commented saying shes been feather picked by another chicken (though the only 2 other chickens she lived with before was the roo and her sister, who also has lost most feathers and is fluffy...

 

[KellyHM]

All I can say is WOW, that's a lot of missing feathers! The bald back is definitely from the roo. The rest could be moulting, but I would also check her for mites/lice to make sure that's not why she's losing feathers. And I would make sure to quarantine her (and any other new ones) from your other chickens for a month just to make sure they aren't carrying any diseases.

 

[spish]

they've been in quarantine for over 12 weeks at the other guys place in the quarantine barn, no access to other people or animals (while we tried to build their enclosure, but we've been so behind schedule we had to pick them up this week or he was gonna sell them))
they've been treated for lice and mites in that time but have in the past 6 weeks lost an awful amount of feathers (just the two partridge girls, the three black brahma sisters just have bare backs from the roos)

i presumed as they still have the fluffy bits that its not feather picking from the others , otherwise the fluffy feathers would be plucked out too?

 

[KellyHM]

Yes, I think if they were plucked the fulffy feathers would be gone too. Sometimes stress can bring on a moult, so if they're otherwise healthy I would assume they're just in a heavy moult. Only time will tell..