Ended Official BYC Contest - Post Your Best (Worst) Chicken Molt Pictures - 2020

[Polish_kid2020]

Poor thing! Truely gives a new meaning to "Pin head"

lol beast thing I've heard all day

 

[vgwright]

Our sad looking Buff Orpington. These pictures don’t really do her justice

 

[OneMountainAcres]

This contest ends tomorrow! If you haven't already, get your entries in! ​

 

[OneMountainAcres]

A HUGE THANK YOU to all who participated, this wouldn't have been possible without all of your entries!!!! Great job everyone, this was so much fun!!

Now, for the moment you've all been waiting for! The judges have finished with their decisions and we have winners!

Non-Frizzle Winners
@Aussie-Chookmum, @Cyprian, @Kayde, @rosemarythyme, @micstrachan, @Acre4Me, @Bantambird, & @hockeyfish
Frizzle Winners
@Dorothy Dandurand, @Chicken_girl17, @Egg Snatcher, @ronkonkoma, & @crittercaretech
​

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First Place Non-Frizzle
@Aussie-Chookmum, your prize is a $50 BYC Store Gift Certificate or a 1-year PFM ($60 value) for yourself or a friend.​

Alice is my Araucana. She had a bad moult at the beginning of Autumn/Winter this year (March in the Great Southern Land)

Here are some photos showing the feather loss and progress of new feathers.
It was a very educational, though distressing time. For me at least.

She lost most of her feathers just as the cold weather started. Poor thing.

It looks really uncomfortable. I feel itchy just looking at her!

She's not in time out, really! She's standing in the only bit of sun she could find.

Looking more like a secretary bird than a chicken!

Trying to warm up with what's left of her flight feathers.

My little porcupine.

There are a lot more photos of her, if anyone is a glutton for punishment, in the article I made documenting her moult.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/alices-amazing-moult-molt.75749/

I noticed that I didn't include many photos of Alice's face in my previous post.
Here are some more pics of Alice during her moult.

She is rocking the punk hairdo here as the new pin feathers on her head push her remaining head feathers straight up!

Second Place Non-Frizzle
@Cyprian, your prize is a $30 BYC Store Gift Certificate or a 6-month PFM ($35 value) for yourself or a friend.​

Gigi.

Poor girl! Someone should knit her a sweater for these long San Diego nights.

I hope she's not embarrassed

Three-way tie for 3rd
Third Place Non-Frizzle
@Kayde, your prize is a $15 BYC Store Gift Certificate or a 3-month PFM ($20 value) for yourself or a friend.​

Bless this old girl, her molt has left her nearly naked this year

Third Place Non-Frizzle
@rosemarythyme, your prize is a $15 BYC Store Gift Certificate or a 3-month PFM ($20 value) for yourself or a friend.​

This is Custard, my 2 1/2 yr old Easter Egger.

Third Place Non-Frizzle
@micstrachan, your prize is a $15 BYC Store Gift Certificate or a 3-month PFM ($20 value) for yourself or a friend.​

Hi friends,

Meet Ester. She is a 17-month-old Barred Rock who was raised by a broody and is a very nervous chicken. She does NOT like being handled, but I still do it occasionally, in case she ever needs hands-on care.

Well, we went out of town and I came home on Dec. 27th to this:

(Soaking in a little sun)

She was clearly uncomfortable, and needed protein, so I started giving cooked beef liver as a treat. Well, this girl was dropping feathers so fast, she’d shake and a cloud of feathers would surround her (think Pig Pen from the Peanuts). She quickly progressed to this:

(Keeping away from her sisters - note the missing tail)

(Shivering on an outdoor roost)

(Self-isolating in the upper level of the coop)

Hanging out in the yard:

I started bringing her in at night, and during the day, I’d have a heater blowing into the coop. She’d go in and out throughout the day to thaw out. Then she was really fading, and I was following her around the yard with a heater and fan:

She was feeling really lousy:

When she started having what looked like neurological symptoms (squat walking sideways and stumbling), I brought her back in to stay for awhile:

She got comfy under the heat lamp and preened her pin feathers. Good photo op to see just how bare she had become!

Poor Ester completely stopped eating and drinking, and thus had to be tube fed. Here are some pics right after a feeding when she was right up close:

Ester is still inside the house. She still isn’t drinking and is very selective in what she will eat. I hope she starts, because now she’s fighting me on the tubing. Her feathers are slowly coming in on her body, but her head is molting:

Ester has really had a rough go. However, there have been two good outcomes so far:

1. With the help of BYC, I overcame my fear of tubing. I honestly don’t know if she would have made it through this molt without it.
2. Ester and I have bonded. Here we are after a feeding:

She is quite the little trooper!

Three-way tie for 4th!
Fourth Place Non-Frizzle
@Acre4Me, your prize is a copy of the beautiful BYC 2021 Calendar!​

This appears to have happened "overnight" - maybe it took a couple of days, but very rapid molt compared to any of our others that have molted. My kid put her in a towel to bring to me to take pics and there were feathers just coming off. She has BluKote on her causing the purple color. Not sure why the kid sprayed her with BluKote, bc she is not injured (but a kid + can of BluKote spray usually means they gotta spray it )


Maybe she will loose more? I'll post updated pics if her look is more "naked" in a few days. IDK, but glad it isn't too cold yet! All pics of same chicken. Chicken is a late April 2019 hatch, so not quite 18 months old. GLW.

3 Days later - This girl is an OVER-Achiever. Look at those pin-feathers. I'm thinking she's a bit itchy. And look at those pin feathers on the inside of the wing - now that looks like itchiness compounded!

Underside

back

Fourth Place Non-Frizzle
@Bantambird, your prize is a copy of the beautiful BYC 2021 Calendar!​

I finally have a hen worthy of a chicken molt contest: this older black silver marans hen!

If you can believe it, today that poor old girl looks worse....

i am not sure how naked she is going to get, but my wonderful mother in law is knitting this poor girl a sweater because we are due for snow and rain all weekend and she won't survive a big snowstorm like she is right now

She made it through the storm ! She goes where she pleases even in the cold and won't stay under the heat panel. She will decide to go inside if she gets cold enough

Not a super bad snow storm, just wet and cold ... Still worrying about her until she gets a good layer of warm feathers!

Fourth Place Non-Frizzle
@hockeyfish, your prize is a copy of the beautiful BYC 2021 Calendar!​

One of our White Leghorns during a full molt

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First Place Frizzle
@Dorothy Dandurand, your prize is a $50 BYC Store Gift Certificate or a 1-year PFM ($60 value) for yourself or a friend​

Second Place Frizzle
@Chicken_girl17, girl1, your prize is a $30 BYC Store Gift Certificate or a 6-month PFM ($35 value) for yourself or a friend.​

Here is my frizzle girl named o’chello she had a bad molt this year lost tons of feathers for a while

Third Place Frizzle
@Egg Snatcher, your prize is a $15 BYC Store Gift Certificate or a 3-month PFM ($20 value) for yourself or a friend.​

Two-way tie for 4th!
Fourth Place Frizzle
@ronkonkoma, your prize is a copy of the beautiful BYC 2021 Calendar!​

Fourth Place Frizzle
@crittercaretech, your prize is a copy of the beautiful BYC 2021 Calendar!​

his is Agatha a beautiful frizzled Silkie. She still struts around like she is the fluffy beauty she was last time she looked in the mirror. She has no idea she looks like a mange infested dinosaur and I don't have the heart to tell her. I think 2020 and the Covid shutdowns have been hard on her too.

I will be sending you instructions on how to claim your prizes momentarily!
~ Shout out to all of the judges that took the time to go through all of the entries. I know it was incredibly difficult to judge and I appreciate all of you! ~

And huge THANK YOU to @oldhenlikesdogs, @TwoCrows, the other staff members, & the Project Managers for your help & support. Also, thanks to our BYC Sponsors (click to view & support them).​

 

[casportpony]

@Aussie-Chookmum, @Cyprian, @Kayde, @rosemarythyme, @micstrachan, @Acre4Me, @Bantambird, @hockeyfish, @Dorothy Dandurand, @Chicken_girl17, @Egg Snatcher, @ronkonkoma, & @crittercaretech!​

 

[3KillerBs]

Congratulations to all the winning chicken keepers.

My sympathy to the poor hens in question.

 

[PeaDawg]

@Aussie-Chookmum, @Cyprian, @Kayde, @rosemarythyme, @micstrachan, @Acre4Me, @Bantambird, @hockeyfish, @Dorothy Dandurand, @Chicken_girl17, @Egg Snatcher, @ronkonkoma, & @crittercaretech!​

 

[micstrachan]

So fun! Thanks so much and congratulations to all the winners!!!

 

[SueT]

(I wouldn't exactly call this contest fun, 6 months of excruciatingly hard to look at pics...)

BUT that said, congrats to the winners! Hopefully they've grown their feathers back by now....

 

[Chickeria]

Congratulations