Providing Weather Protection for Late Molters

[farmermama2384]

I have a Red Dorking hen who is in molt now, just as the temps in western NC drop below freezing at night. All of our flocks are on pasture, and her particular flock prefers to roost in a tree instead of their coop. Is there anything I can do for her (chicken sweater etc) so that I don't have to bring her in every night? The temps here are in the high 40s to low 60s during the day and mid 20s to low 40s at night.

 

[aart]

Chicken sweater may cause more problems than it solves.

Could interfere with the growth of new pin feathers,
and pin feathers are 'uncomfortable',
a sweater would exacerbate that discomfort and stress the bird out.

I'd get those birds roosting in a coop to protect them from cold winds,
not to mention predators.

 

[lazy gardener]

Agreed with above. I had a RIR hen that would go into a heavy molt every winter, in the dead of the winter. She looked like she belonged in the poultry case at my local Hannaford store. She did spend her nights in the coop, but did just fine through her molt, and I am much farther north than you are. Her molts were during the worst 2 coldest winters I can remember in the last 20 years. To put anything over those emerging pin feathers would be torture to her.