Skipped molts - trying to figure out why

[DonyaQuick]

I have two black olive eggers that are nearly two years old now and never molted over the fall/winter. Same age but unrelated siblings all molted by February and did full molts (those siblings were supposed to be olive eggers too and were in the same bin, but they lay regular brown eggs). For a while I held out hope the two olive eggers were just going to do it late, but it's a good way through spring now with no sign of it an no sign of stopping laying either, so I'm probably hoping in vain now.

I'm trying to figure out what might have led to them skipping molts in fall/winter and how to avoid it in the future if it's something within my control...or if it's more likely something genetic, since these two birds are from the same batch from the same hatchery. I have 22 adult birds right now and none of the others have ever had this problem. A couple times in the past I've seen partial molts that were a start/stop/start situation due to weird weather, but never just fully skipped molts like this in birds >1 year old.

For both olive eggers:

• Eggs have good shells (no soft shelled eggs, etc.)
• They never stopped laying eggs. They each lay almost daily and did so through the entire winter.
• Stumps of feather shafts are left in pores.
• If I remove a feather shaft manually, the feather will start to grow back in a couple weeks but will "stall out" about halfway through growth, fail to fully develop, get damaged, and eventually lead to another stump (although a different kind of stump than the original feather; damaged-beyond-repair pin feathers leave thick hard nibs).
• They are not picking their own feathers and preen normally as far as I've seen. The feathers have just slowly gotten worn over time. I've watched bits break off here and there from normal activity.
• Skin shows no sign of irritation and birds are not itchy or picking at theselves, so I do not think it's depluming mites. They have been heavily inspected many times for other kinds of mites or other ectoparasites.
• I sit with the flock daily and inspect these two birds frequently for any sign of proper molting, so they most definitely did not sneak it past me. All of their remaining feathers are a year old now.

Environment/feed:

• Feed is 20% all flock with calcium on the side.
• I have tried vitamin supplements in feed and later via water.
• I have tried offering extra protein.
• There is no artificial lighting in the coop.

This is one of the olive eggers (the black one). I can try to get better pictures of both birds and without saddles if it would help; but they just look like your typical rooster-damaged hens that need to molt. The barred hen is one of the same-age, same-bin-at-the-store siblings.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I would remove the rooster if you aren't breeding. That's a lot of damage. Sometimes other birds will pluck the muffs off other birds. You may be dealing with a feather picker.

Molts sometimes can be so slow you don't notice, but if the hens continued to lay than they probably didn't molt. Are you providing extra light? Or is there light shining in the coop at night? How old was the hen last fall? Fully a year old?

 

[DonyaQuick]

I would remove the rooster if you aren't breeding. That's a lot of damage. Sometimes other birds will pluck the muffs off other birds. You may be dealing with a feather picker.

Molts sometimes can be so slow you don't notice, but if the hens continued to lay than they probably didn't molt. Are you providing extra light? Or is there light shining in the coop at night? How old was the hen last fall? Fully a year old?

No supplemental light. I have dim string lights in the large run to help me do night chores, but the coop is pitch black at dusk unless there’s a clear sky with a full moon, and they go to bed before those little lights even come on. The windows on the coop face away from all artificial light sources on the property. Both hens were 1.5yrs old in the fall when my older birds started to molt.

My roo is actually pretty much leaving these two alone compared to other hens. They are part of a breeding flock although obviously I have not hatched from these two since I don’t know what’s going on with them. The barred one in the photo actually gets a lot more rooster attention and as you can see she’s fine - because she did molt. There are other areas where the feathers are crummy and broken that have nothing to do with the roosters, like on the belly where it touches the roost. The beard situation is because other birds regularly cleaned food and mud from there, so the feathers just got rougher and rougher from being preened more and eventually broke. I watched that progression daily for months. They were not picked. I know what feather picking looks like since I had a butt-feather-picker for a brief period and also had a roo who picked some of his own feathers due to mites once. These hens’ feathers are just breaking from being old. The actual structure of the feathers is just breaking down, even for the feathers still present. They feel worn to the touch. I’ll try to get some up close pictures of the “intact” feathers elsewhere on the body this weekend. Their wings for example look terrible.

 

[DonyaQuick]

I wondered this morning why I hadn't done a weekly photo documentary of the feather deterioration...I am reminded why now. This flock is all over me and loves being checked over carefully...right until I pull the shiney black spooky phone out of my pocket. Then my two olive eggers transform into big slippery eels who want to be anywhere on me but my lap. Some of these photos were taken with the other one of the pair sat on my head.

I suppose everyone will just have to trust me that if these birds get a new pin feather anywhere, I know about it. I go over my chickens in this flock each morning like a monkey doing social grooming.

Ok so these two birds are Raven who should be very Ameraucana-like and Hobbit who is bigger and the less horrible-looking.

First up: Hobbit. Hopefully it is clear here that she has broken awful feathers all over her, and this is not purely rooster-induced. It's hard to see because she's black but ALL of her body feathers are shredded like these.

Even the pantaloon feathers.

Now, Hobbit does have some "new" feathers. But before anyone says she's molting it's important to note that these feathers have been exactly like this for at least 2 months with no additional growth. They both grew extremely slowly and then stalled out, including that one in the back that almost made it to finish. I guarantee if I was to bother at that sheath too far down, it would still bleed. >2 months like this is not normal growth for a new feather of this size. If you zoom in you will see a weird cris-cross pattern all over the undeveloped part that should not be there for a healthy, growing feather, certainly not on the blood-containing portion. That pattern forms from progressive damage to feathers that haven't fully formed. Under normal conditions I would expect the sheath to flake easily if it looked like this, but it doesn't; it feels hard, thick, but also brittle. You can see the skin is a healthy pink and not showing any signs of irritation. Depluming mites have been a persistent thought in the back of my head, but they would create skin irritation, oozing, and crusts - there is none of that for these birds.

And here is some more of Raven. Again there are just a few pin feathers on her neck - but they have been exactly as pictured for weeks now. No growth. After so much time they should be an inch long easily. The farthest one down(near bottom of the photo) had more but it hardened, broke off, and now is one of those pin feather stumps I mentioned.

Same deal for the couple of pin feathers near the top of her head.

Action shot of Ravent's underside. I doubt she has ever had even a single passing broody thought. She never sits in nests. Again it was gradual breaking of bits of feather more and more to reach this point. You can see some towards the back that haven't broken all the way off yet but I'm sure they will soon. She had some bit of crud stuck to her further up; that flaked off and isn't there now, not sure what it was.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Personally I would treat her for mites and lice just in case, and separate her out to see if those feathers grow back without other birds picking at her. You can force a molt, but it's stressful and requires decreased lights, and a reduction in feed. I've read of depluming mites, which requires a different treatment. Here's an older thread from @TwoCrows .

www.backyardchickens.com/threads/depluming-mites-and-how-to-treat-hens.674172/