My hen is walking strangely, any idea why? **MOULTING is the answer

[speckledhen]

Check her eyes. See if there is something on her eyeball that she thinks is in her face. I have one who gets cobwebs on her face, then she backs away from them, trying to get away from them, when a tiny filament is stuck on one eyeball.

 

[KristinLLB]

This is why I love BYC so much. My Amanda has been doing this for 2 days, to my horror. It's terrible this morning. I came on here expecting to look up how to cull but searched on SIDEWAYS WALK and voila! **** molting!

Tuna Spa Treatment coming up!

 

[PatS]

Thanks, guys! My hen (who looks pathtic, btw) is doing the crab-walk and I ran a search. Looks like it is her molt. I'll bring her in to the extra bathroom for a couple of days, and pamper her, as it is COLD for a nekkid chicken. Hope she likes tuna!

 

[aspiemomi]

I realize this is a super old thread, but what you are describing is what is happening to my barred-rock hen. She is my lead hen and just went into a hard molt. We had a super cold snap a few weeks ago, luckily she had all her feathers, but right afterwards she started to molt and now the temp has taken another dip.....was just wondering how it all turned out for you in the long run. The guy at Del's here in Monroe told me to switch from layer to flock raiser which is higher protein. I've been giving them scratch and also some Hen Treats worms that someone gave us for Xmas. Not sure what else to do, but it is killing me seeing her walking around sideways and naked.