Ended Official BYC Contest: Worst Chicken Molt Pictures - Fall/Winter 2012

[aoxa]

Those pictures made my whole day!!! 
I don't have any pictures of my EEs right now, and they sure wouldn't compare to that!  I will say though, that one day I opened their chicken door to let them out, then went in the big door to check for eggs.  I immediately ran back out to count them because it looked like something got in there and killed one of them - two huge piles of feathers but all accounted for!

It is frightening if you don't know it's coming!

 

[mo puff]

Is it normal for a chicken to molt twice in one year? My white EE is going through a second molt? My Aruacana looks exactly like the pic at the opening for this contest... so uglycute!

 

[aoxa]

Is it normal for a chicken to molt twice in one year? My white EE is going through a second molt?  My Aruacana looks exactly like the pic at the opening for this contest... so uglycute!

What time did she go through the molt the first time, and how old is she?

 

[ronott1]

Is it normal for a chicken to molt twice in one year? My white EE is going through a second molt? My Aruacana looks exactly like the pic at the opening for this contest... so uglycute!

Quote: Exactly!

The older they are the more often they will molt and the molts will be harder. Some breeds have a molt at about 12 week old too.

 

[aoxa]

Exactly!

The older they are the more often they will molt and the molts will be harder. Some breeds have a molt at about 12 week old too.

All breeds go through a molt at this age. Between 8-12 weeks they go through a juvenile molt to get their adult feathers.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
Except she's a hen.

 

[aoxa]

Except she's a hen.

LOL

That's a light barred rock hen! Well she is awfully grouchy looking for a girl

 

[ronott1]

Quote: Yes! A lot of folks new to chickens do not realize that the pile of feathers is a molt and that it is normal. Some breeds go through a bad molt at that time. Others, especially the Leghorn types, grow the new feathers so fast they do not look ugly. That molt at 12 weeks does not count as the first molt so if that was the first one, do not count it. The first adult molt can take as long as 1.5 years or come much sooner depending on when they hatched.

Mine are going through their first adult molt and they are over 1.5 years old.

Love the pictures!

 

[aoxa]

Yes! A lot of folks new to chickens do not realize that the pile of feathers is a molt and that it is normal. Some breeds go through a bad molt at that time. Others, especially the Leghorn types, grow the new feathers so fast they do not look ugly. That molt at 12 weeks does not count as the first molt so if that was the first one, do not count it. The first adult molt can take as long as 1.5 years or come much sooner depending on when they hatched.

Mine are going through their first adult molt and they are over 1.5 years old.

Love the pictures!

I have a January 2012 rooster going through a molt right now. Strange!

I think they call the 12 week molt a mini-molt, as you really don't notice a weird looking chick. Though they do lose their tail feathers and look rumpless for a short time.

 

[ilikehorses2]

Mine arn't bad!