No feathers on neck or tail feathers? And no rooster!

[karlamaria]

All my birds are beautiful, but today I noticed my biggest hen missing features on her neck and her long tail features. No sores, redness etc. Just missing feathers. Looked for mites lice etc, nope nothing .we have no roo so not sure why this happened. We give them Layena crumbles And I give them other protein sources, boss, scrambled eggs etc. Is this a molt? She is 10 months old, and in real good health, eats like a pig lol. there are five girls, in a 5x 6 coop, 10x10 large pen and they free range the yard when the snow is not to deep ( like today) no healTh issues I know of, but again you are all the experts I come to when I need help. Any idea's ? Nope they do not peck each other, nor do they eat feathers either. I'm puzzled

 

[kla37]

If she is young, and hasn't had her first "big girl" molt, then this may be it. I hope someone more experienced can let you know! I had 2 of my chickens just finish molting, but I don't know if it's common for them to do so in the winter.

 

[froggiesheins]

I too think molting..how old is your hen?

 

[karlamaria]

One of my hens molted this winter and is now feathered out, my chickens are 10 months old.

 

[froggiesheins]

Duh, I just re read your original post, and you did say how old they were....yup I do believe she is molting.
To err on the side of saftey keep an eye on her for the next day or so. She will stop laying eggs if she really is molting..so then you will know for sure if its molting. Hope that helps...

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[karlamaria]

Thank you so much! I'm only getting 1 egg a day, it's cold here and dark by 5:00 and still dark at 7:30 in the morning. Not sure who is laying lol, no one seems to want to . Can not wait until spring!

 

[froggiesheins]

I just noticed you live in Montana....cold is an understatement.....man those eggs must come out frozen....BRRRRR!

 

[karlamaria]

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Yes, we do miss that one egg some days , we just fry it for the girls. Winters here with chickens can make it much harder. We clean there coop every two weeks, makes for one cold day! The pen is also done at this time, brrrrr. The pen has full covering over it, and the door we use to go into the pen has a big ply wood board covering it at night or when it snows, the pen is totally dry, but it's so cold for them

we have made it impossible for snow or rain to get in there pen, which has made it much better for them, that and the coop is insulated. This is our first ever chicken owner . It's been awesome!