I already have one Brown Leghorn looking pretty grotty and feathers all over the coop. The girls don't usually start molt this early. I am in the Albuquerque area. Anybody else seeing this? Time for Feather Fix and extra protein!
I have one buff frizzle hen still finishing her molt from last year. She's been laying but still looks like a pincushion. None ever just molt and get it over with. It must be a Silkie thing, but I got used to it as that's what the ones that molt do.
They get 20% Flock Maker, and I won't go higher than that with them.
Ours always seem to molt immediately after our County Fair (late July/Aug) ... just in time to be nekkid for the State Fair over Labor Day weekend! Poor DD had an AMAZING BIS rooster all lined up for State, but we ended up not going. Poor Sammy (Yosemite Sam - a rootin' tootin' little redhead) valiantly managed to hang onto a single gorgeous sickle feather for the State Fair ... but lost the rest of his tail and most of his ruff. The worst part was that Sammy's solo sickle was the only tail feather left on all of the show stock. DD was SO upset!
So "Yes," molting at the end of the summer is a "thing" in Maryland, too!
I feel so much better reading this thread. One of my two girls has not laid in two weeks. She has lost a feather here and there, and because I am moving them in a couple of days, I treated them for mites/lice last night, and dusted this coop, just to be on the safe side (I really don't want them to take blood suckers to a brand new coop). I didn't see anything on her,but this afternoon, noticed a lot of her feathers in the run. Great. Just in time to explode feathers in a new coop.
I was kind of worried, because her sister had a really dirty bum. She got cleaned up and soaked in elector psp also, but I couldn't examine her closely, because she is my wild child and was having none of it. If she had mites, I just have to hope the elector got them.
Now I feel like Peony is not laying, and is losing feathers because she is molting earlier than last year. *whew*!
Edit to add: I'm in SE Louisiana. It is still hot here.