Moulting

[dmwalker1999]

Hello. I am new to chicken raising. I have two buff orpingtons, and I was wondering what moulting is. Thanks for the help

 

[gardendufus]

I am also new, so hope I don't pass on any incorrect info. From what I have read chickens will moult (once a year? or so). This means they will lose their feathers and grow new ones. It seems that some of them are 'slow' molters, and that you will barely notice as they lose a few and replace a few over a longer period of time. Some lose a lot all at once and will have areas where they are bare of feathers.

If you do a search, you will find several threads on this, many with pictures. I found one thread several months ago where people were having a contest over whose bird got the ugliest. Apparently nothing to worry about, but chickens slow down or stop laying while molting (I think usually in the fall).

Again, I'm new, have never gone through it. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will help you out with better info.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You mean this thread? Yes, those are extreme cases. Most are not nearly that bad.

Molting Contest
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=394556

Here is an interesting article on molting with some nice drawings.

Mississippi State describes molting
http://msucares.com/poultry/management/poultry_feathers.html

There are different kinds of molts. Chicks will go through two major molts before they reach full size. They simply outgrow their feathers and need to replace them.

Sometimes chickens will go through motls, and often partial molts, just from stress. If the run out of water for a while is a good example, but about any stress can cause some molting.

The major molt though is when the days get shorter. Chicken feathers get worn and broken through normal day-to-day chicken activities. When the days get shorter, it signals to the chickens that it is not a good time to start raising chicks and that it would be good to replace those worn out feathers. So they stop laying eggs, shed their feathers, and use the protein and energy that they were using for egg laying to grow those feathers.

If you control their light, you can cause a molt anytime by shortening the length of light they are exposed to. Some people keep lights on in the coop to extend their laying days and prevent the molt. I don't. I really think they need the time off to recharge their system, but I'm not into it commercially.

Many people mistakenly believe that 14 hours is a magic number of hours of light to prevent a molt. Commercial operations that control the light their birds see in those huge hen houses use 14 hours, but the real trigger to starting a molt is the days shortening. Chickens near the equator never see 14 hours of daylight any time of year. Those chickens still can lay really well and will molt when days get shorter. Chickens a long way from the equator will see a whole lot more than 14 hours a day of light in the middle of summer. If you set your lights so that they get 14 hours of light, they may have already started a molt from the shortening days before they get down to 14 hours.

Probably a lot more information than you wanted, but hopefully this helps.

 

[gardendufus]

Thank you Ridgerunner, I knew someone with a lot more knowledge than me would help out. And you always say it so well.