My chickens are losing their feathers.

[1chickeepie]

My chicks seem to be maturing well, although they have some weird habits, like digging in the dirt and nesting there instead of in their boxes, even though I've put wooden eggs in there so that they will know where to lay the eggs. And they roll around in the dirt too. They are an all white wyandotte, not sure if that makes a difference. When I go to feed them, they rush me, but they usually still have food. Anyways, they are losing their feathers. I'm a little worried. There are no predators getting into where they do their living, but they still are losing feathers, what does all this mean? Are my chickens normal?

 

[SunnyCalifornia]

How old are they? They molt naturally. I have some molting less than 6 months, others haven't even at 16 months.

 

[lulumammato2]

How old are they, do you just see a bunch of feathers around?My girls did the feaher thing about a month and a half ago it seemed like for a few days there were tons of feathers in the coop but it turned out they were just molting, they were 3 1/2 to 4 months old once they were thru with the molt there's been a big decrease in feathers. As far as the dirt they like to dust bathe.

 

[Tala]

They do have a "teenage" molt. Sometimes it's really obvious, sometimes you just notice a lot of feathers lying around.