Question about Molting & Post Your Molting Pics Please

[helptostartbackyardcoop]

I am very curious about me 2 BA as well. I too intentionally bought laying hens. I was told they were 10 months old and had started to lay in June. However, I brought them home got one egg the following day and not another since. I read they go through stress in a move and may need a week to adjust. We are 10days in no eggs, there are many small fluffy feathers inside and out with a couple large feathers. Molting??? I was under the impression they didn't molt until after their first year or so. I feel cheated, what to do?

 

[RAREROO]

Most hens molt soon after turning a year old, espcially at the end of summer when they need new feathers to help get ready for the winter. Sometimes it can be confused with the feathers that are lost from the back and heads of hens from the roos during mating and sometimes it can be a combination of the two. Most of my hens are molting or at the end of the molt and they can look scraggly as you said, but they are as pretty as they were when they were pullets when they come out.

This is one of my Barred Rock roosters that is finishing up his molt. He has completly new feathers, except for his tail. Tail feathers are usually the last to come in. He had only one long tail feather for a while and now he has none, I think the looks really funny. All of my roos are also molting and what tail feathers they do have, look terrible. Their hackle feathers also look scraggly but give them a few more weeks and they'll be good as new.

 

[ERnoleGuy]

Quote:
Well the good news (for me at least) is that one of them finally started laying about a week ago now. So, I guess it took a little over 2 weeks for her to lay once brought to her new home. The other Barred Rock hen is not yet laying though. I am just trying to be as patient as possible and provide them with all the creature comforts. From this experience, what I am thinking happened is that the stress of the move induced a mini-molt of sorts. I just really hope the other one starts laying soon too. Best of luck to you as well. It shouldn't take too much longer, but some have said it takes up to a month after a move. Let us know what happens.

 

[cjstanman]

I have 3 BRs and 1 EE who are 13 months old. One of the BRs started getting really fluffy and when I saw a bunch of small feathers all over the yard, I thought there had been a fight! (The one who's molting is at the bottom of the pecking order.) Here are a couple of pics - one is a group shot so you can see one is "fluffier" than all the rest. The other is a close-up - she's got those bare patches on both sides, symmetrical.

I can't really tell if she's laying or not - we're still getting 2-3 eggs a day out of the 4 hens.

I love the BRs - they are so silly and look especially goofy when at a full run, ha ha!

P.S. So far she's been losing feathers for about a week now.

 

[speckledhen]

You dont know the unwritten rule! You can't show pictures of your women in their Time of Shame, LOL. Those pics are NOTHING compared to a really bad molt. I've had an Ameraucana hen who was completely bald on her head, chin and neck for months. She is just now growing feathers down the middle of her head and looks like a vulture with a mohawk hair-do. It's awful! I've had several birds look like Turkens recently. If they stop laying, the feathers come in faster, but poor Gypsy still lays about every day so she's been bare for months.

I have access to 22% layer pellets which I use sometimes when alot of them are molting, but they are more expensive.

In the interest of science, here are molting pics. The names have been withheld to protect the embarrassed.

 

[kathyinmo]

Well the good news (for me at least) is that one of them finally started laying about a week ago now. So, I guess it took a little over 2 weeks for her to lay once brought to her new home. The other Barred Rock hen is not yet laying though. I am just trying to be as patient as possible and provide them with all the creature comforts.

Gee, you are lucky. I got 1 year old Cuckoo Marans from a friend, and they layed an egg the day they got here ..... and not another for an entire month! Now, however, they lay an egg every day, rarely skipping a day!

Same thing happened with my year old Silkies. One month. And they, too, faithfully lay an egg a day now. I do believe a move is very traumatic and stressful for them.

Cynthia, Thanks for the moulting pictures. I promise not to tell .... Though, they are very educational!​

 

[Cindy in PA]

A good layer will LAY for a year or a little longer before they molt, making them 17-20 months old depending on when they started laying. I got Production reds (2004) hatched the end of July, much different than my usual April-May chickens. They started laying in November & molted the next year in Dec, Jan & February. This is my experience, I have never had birds molt because it's fall, but they have molted when they were around 18 months old regardless of the season. JMHO

 

[gritsar]

Three of my girls are now finished with their molts and are back to laying. That's less than a month molting time, which I think is great.

 

[ConnorMayasMom]

Mine were even more bare than that...lots of feathers missing around the neck and chest...you can see regrowth pretty quickly.

 

[christielenn]

Time of Shame... I'm still laughing about that. There's not much that's more pitiful looking than a molting chicken.

My Easter Eggers have been particularly sad to watch -- they started to molt around May, going completely bald on their backs, and they are just now (in October) growing their feathers back. I wonder if the horrible heat this Summer had anything to do with the protracted and very featherless molt, or if it's just the breed. I babied them and fed them extra protein, supplements, etc. -- all to no avail! Those feathers seem to come back when they are ready, as far as I can tell.

Some of my Barred Rocks are molting, too, but it's not nearly so pitiful looking. Fortunately, I watched my older Barred Rocks molt a couple of years ago, so I wasn't completely unprepared for the EE molt -- otherwise, I might have rushed them all to the chicken ER!

My experience is that a chicken's first molt is often a real doozy -- it will likely give you pause even if you know what to expect! You'll wonder if suddenly your coop has a mite infestation, even when half of your hens still are beautifully feathered. Then, when you've ruled out mites, you'll wonder if your sweet rooster -- the one who is normally so gentle with his ladies -- somehow changes his personality only when you're not around. In other words, you'll worry -- and then compound that worry through internet searches on horrible chicken maladies -- until one day you walk out to your coop to see new feathers starting to poke through.

My latest round of chicks are Production Reds and White Leghorns. I'm curious to see how these breeds handle a molt. Ah, chickens... always something new to learn!