Organic isn't always the best

[hemet dennis]

Get them on some good GMO food soon.

 

[ooptec]

hey,

I'm pretty sure organic just means no GMO feed or antibiotics, or feed that's been sprayed w/pesticide when grown. In other words what they eat and not treated. It has nothing to do w/exercise or being outside, that's free range. Free range is also misleading as it means they aren't packed in cages but packed in buildings that have access to outdoors. However access doesn't mean adequate space or that they even use it.

more industry 'weasel words'

I've seen molts like this from battery chickens too. Might be the confining thing maybe.

You don't know how lucky your girls are living at your house, Factory farming is a plague IMO. Instituted by humans, an even worse plague

cheers

 

[chickened]

I was gonna ask about molting and realized that my chickens aren't molting. All breeds of chickens molt around the same time right?

Short answer... no, they molt based on several factors which are end of a laying cycle, age, daylight lenght and feed availablity. Some molt so slowly that it can be missed if you do not know what to look for. Molting does not always mean a noticable feather loss, sometimes it is barely noticable.

 

[mom'sfolly]

Keep in mind, commercial growers, even organic ones, usually raise fast molting varieties and they often force molt them. This diminishes the time that they are unproductive for the farmer. I can't comment on how the birds look, other than that they seem to be in a hard molt.

 

[zazouse]

I was gonna ask about molting and realized that my chickens aren't molting. All breeds of chickens molt around the same time right?

No Hun they can molt at different times, i have 100's and they molt at different times all year long, some molt real hard others molt a little at a time.
Never had 100's molt like them in the photo, someone was slipping in the nutritional department 4-sure.

 

[RHRanch]

Looks like they were put into a forced molt to me.

 

[OSUman]

Organic has to do with the treatment of animals too, he said he had to have a certain sq ft per bird and had to have the birds have access to the outdoors for 120 days. A friend of mine who gets birds from places like this often got some from here too and was in shock of how bad they were feathered, twice as bad as any they have gotten before.

 

[cassie]

Gee. I've had chickens in molt look just like this. Not all at once, because I don't force molt mine. But I have had individuals occasionally look like this. At first I thought something was pulling their feathers but I finally realised they were just molting. Now if I had given one of my naked chickens to somebody, they would be patting themselves on the back for having rescued that poor chicken and how much better it looked after just a short time at their place. If they had come back to my place to crow about it, they would have found my naked chickens looking just as good as the one they took home.

 

[kathyinmo]

I don't think "organic," is the cause of that.

 

[sumi]

Organic has to do with the treatment of animals too, he said he had to have a certain sq ft per bird and had to have the birds have access to the outdoors for 120 days. A friend of mine who gets birds from places like this often got some from here too and was in shock of how bad they were feathered, twice as bad as any they have gotten before.

Free range: 21.5sq foot per chicken and organic: 108sq foot per chicken. Can't remember exactly where I read that. Somewhere online while researching.