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

[featherhead007]

Sorry, but I trained my chickens not to molt! (and if you believe that,........)

 

[Aunt Angus]

@micstrachan I gotta see this.

 

[Waterfowllady]

Come on down!!!!

But there’s uninvited giant snakes and lizards invading houses, I’m good

 

[casportpony]

@Aunt Angus, I had the mods merge your two posts. All of your pictures are here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...cken-molt-pictures-2020.1407979/post-23828336

 

[Aunt Angus]

@Aunt Angus, I had the mods merge your two posts. All of your pictures are here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...cken-molt-pictures-2020.1407979/post-23828336

Thanks! I was going to delete the first post, but I completely forgot!

 

[micstrachan]

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!

 

[micstrachan]

Bad time of year to be moltiing.
View attachment 2474580View attachment 2474581View attachment 2474582

Poor baby!

 

[micstrachan]

Gigi.

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

I hope she's not embarrassed

View attachment 2474710View attachment 2474711

Ouch!

 

[Laura_BelgianBantams_63]

Question:

When does this contest finish?

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Question:

When does this contest finish?

There's no specific date but sometime around the end of January