My Olive Egger lost her beard and muffs

[micheleomal]

I have a 14 mos old Olive egger hen. She and her sister have always had nice full beards and muffs. We had a respiratory infection run through the flock a few weeks ago and I had to resort to antibiotics in the water for everyone. Just the other day I noticed that "Whiskers" no longer has any! Probably coincidence with the antibiotic use. Also, she did not molt last fall. Could she be molting in the spring? She looks like she might be missing some feathers on her lower back near her tail. No rooster, haven't seen any mites but I can check closer when she roosts tonight. I guess my question is, can 1 chicken out of a flock of 12 molt in the spring? Can a previously bearded hen go "bald" on her face? Thanks for any advice.

 

[Odelia]

Chickens "should" molt in the fall. They don't always. They can molt at any time of year. Sometimes a partial mold, sometimes a hard molt. Sometimes they grow back right away sometimes they don't.

 

[micheleomal]

It's June now, my OE went through a partial molt and went broody at the same time. After 3 weeks of broodiness, I made a broody breaker pen and broke her in less than 3 days. She continued to lose feathers but after 2 wks started laying full size olive green eggs. I forgot to mention that from last summer when she started laying until now she had been laying very small eggs that were a pale bluish green, not much different from my EE. I was a bit disappointed with the color (the size I figured would get larger as she aged) but am now amazed that the egg color could change so much. Very pleased...now if her sister would do the same thing I'd be really happy! So anyway, they can moult at weird times of the year. Her sister has not yet moulted her first big moult. Actually, she is the only one of the 3 that I got last (2013) spring that have moulted. Just thought I'd post an update.