Ended Official BYC Contest - Worst Chicken Molt Pictures - Fall-Winter 2016

[cmarlowdrive]

Poor thing. This would be a cute picture for a "caption" contest.

 

[lovechicks1293]

One of my Frizzle Easter Eggers. This photo was taken 8/14/2016. Her name is Fancy, though she had a hard time living up to that name for a while.

i think this one is the best so far!

 

[DesertChic]

And my worst non-frizzled entry - This is Rizzo, my NN Turken. In spite of her haggard state she still gives me 6 X-lg eggs per week!

 

[shanadienne]

Well after Rizzo^^^ I think the contest is over!

But here's mine:

For All Other Breeds, Stevie, my Easter egger. She's 5 years old and is reliably the ugliest molter of rhe flock every year. Wish I could submit a pic from a few years ago though...

 

[junebuggena]

And my worst non-frizzled entry - This is Rizzo, my NN Turken. In spite of her haggard state she still gives me 6 X-lg eggs per week!

From the lack of pin feathers on your birds, it looks more like you have a serious feather picking problem. Doesn't look like molting at all.

 

[suwahsen]

All other breeds

This is my Welsummer, Speck. To see what she looks like with feathers just look at the October picture in the 2016 BYC calendar. Oh, how the mighty have fallen!

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

Wow, some of those are crazy molts. I have one that molts that way. I catch her shivering in the mornings till the sun comes up. What do you do to keep your hens warm? Or do you just let them shiver it out?

I finally brought mine in the house one day when it was windy. I just felt awful for her. Course she was miserable being separated from her sisters. So I'm not sure which is worse.

Just curious what others do.

 

[junebuggena]

Wow, some of those are crazy molts. I have one that molts that way. I catch her shivering in the mornings till the sun comes up. What do you do to keep your hens warm? Or do you just let them shiver it out?

I finally brought mine in the house one day when it was windy. I just felt awful for her. Course she was miserable being separated from her sisters. So I'm not sure which is worse.

Just curious what others do.

I leave them be. If they need shelter, they will find it. And if they are getting enough protein, the naked phase only lasts for a few days.

 

[DesertChic]

From the lack of pin feathers on your birds, it looks more like you have a serious feather picking problem. Doesn't look like molting at all.

Pure Naked Neck Turkens, which she is, generally don't have pin feathers. That's part of their appeal as meat birds. Processing takes far less time to perform.

Edit: Here's a picture of her before molting...

 

[DesertChic]

Wow, some of those are crazy molts. I have one that molts that way. I catch her shivering in the mornings till the sun comes up. What do you do to keep your hens warm? Or do you just let them shiver it out?

I finally brought mine in the house one day when it was windy. I just felt awful for her. Course she was miserable being separated from her sisters. So I'm not sure which is worse.

Just curious what others do.

I leave them be, but I also live in southern AZ where even now in November our lows are only around 50* at night and still reaching 70* - 80* in the daytime. If one of my girls seems to be suffering an especially long molt I will separate her and feed her a mixture of animal protein, black oil sunflower seeds, and fresh organic greens. One meal like that is usually sufficient to stimulate feather growth.