It always helps if you tell us the age of the chicken under discussion.
If she's around 18 months or older, she may be on the verge of molt. Not all chickens molt on the normal fall molting schedule. Some, like my five-year old EE/Cream Legbar cross Ladybug, molt according to their own timetable.
Ladybug has only molted three times in five years. In June. Ladybug has been laying her blue eggs regularly up until a week ago. She is normally a brat, annoying and pestering and bullying everyone who is in her path. But she's been very lethargic the past few days, and I was starting to worry about her.
This morning, I started cleaning out the coop of overnight poop and discovered a big pile of feathers. All the rest of the flock of 22 have finished molt or are still too young. So I knew I had one chicken suddenly starting in the middle of winter. Finishing my chores, I went into the run and found a trail of feathers, and they seemed to lead to Ladybug. That can't be, I thought, Ladybug molts in June. One way to find out if it's her.
I picked her up and her feathers came off in my hands. Then I saw the new pin feathers emerging under her vent and on the back of her neck. For reasons known only to Bug, she's decided to molt now. And if this molt is anything like her egg laying habits, she will likely lose all her feathers at once and be done with it, just as she never lingers in the nest, but hops in, lays her egg, and is outta there.
