Strange feather loss

[srfrgrl]

Okay, so I don't know what is going on but one thing after another is happening and I am starting to get very nervous. The latest is that one of my chickens (barred rock) is losing a whole bunch of feathers all over her body...I mean like 40%. They are everywhere. The strange part of it though is that the feathers are detaching at the shaft and so she's got a bunch of featherless shafts sticking out of her body. She is not yet 3 years old. She was not feeling well a while back but seemed to recover just fine and is eating just fine but this feather loss thing is throwing me for a loop. They have been getting the organic crumble forever and I feed them meal worms and food scraps. I also grind up their egg shells into a powder and add it back into their feed. Not sure what else to do. Any suggestions, ideas would be greatly appreciated. I tried to get a good picture of her but she kept running away. This is the best that I have.

 

[cafarmgirl]

Is she just starting her fall molt and those are pin feathers coming in? I've got several half naked birds right now with lots of pin feathers coming in.

 

[Wyandottes7]

To me, it just looks like she's in the process of a molt. Those spiky feather "shafts" might actually be the pinfeathers growing in. My chickens often look terrible during their molts, but in a few weeks, she may look better.

 

[iwiw60]

Not to worry...she's in molt! Here's a page with good information for you:

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/search?q=molt

 

[srfrgrl]

Thank you Thank you Thank you!! I feel so relieved. I'm hyper paranoid because of all we've been through with my girls in the last couple of months. I didn't know if molting happened at their age. Thanks for the link. I will definitely check it out.