Moulting--why do they do it?? It stresses ME out!

[pawsplus]

When I got home yesterday, Svetlana was STILL up in the roosts. Clearly she never came out all day long (and hence, never ate or drank). I don't know if, defeathered as she is, she's having a hard time flying down from the roosts (which are 7 feet up), but she's never had any problem before (she's been w/ me 3 years now). I don't know. I went in and grabbed her and put her out, and she ate and drank.

So this a.m. I just grabbed her and tossed her out b/f I left for work. I put out yogurt w/ flax, mealworms, and fancy chicken oatmeal, and she was eating when I left. I guess I'll just have to do that until she gets back to normal!

 

[Cindy in PA]

Most chickens should molt a year or more after they started laying, so it depends on the season they started laying. I've heard the average is 18 months old give or take. A good layer will lay more than a year, but some will lay less. So if your chicken started laying at 5 months, they would probably molt at 17 months or older. I am sure other things affect them also, but this is a general guideline. So a chick hatched in January will molt at a different time than one hatched in May.

 

[gryeyes]

I have only seen a few of my chickens go into hard molts. The poor things look SO bad! And they're uncomfortable and cranky. The first, soft molt fooled me; I thought what's the big deal about molting? Boy howdy - the first hen that experienced her first hard molt looked like an Auschwitz survivor! Scrawny, nekkid, just awful.

My Cayuga drake is coming out of his first molt and for a while he just look extra rumpled. I'm guessing that was one of the "soft" variety. Or maybe ducks don't go into full molt, I dunno - I've only had my chickens and ducks just about two years.

 

[pawsplus]

Yeah, this is the first time in 3 years that Svetty has moulted really badly. I just wonder what triggers it?? This comes right after Olivia's death--I don't think the chickens were that upset about it, BUT Olivia was out for more than a week (in the house being treated), then she came back for 10 days prior to her surgery. During that time, Clarice picked on her for the first time ever--I now think it was b/c Clarice knew Olivia was worse off than the vet and I thought she was (and worse off than she was acting). Then Olivia went to the vet for surgery and never returned.

All this coincided with my pen reno work. So that was additional stress.

I wonder if all that threw Svetlana into this bad moult?? Possible?