This is molting, right?

[FunnyBunny89]

Hi friends! It's been a while since I've been able to hang out here. Busy times gearing up for winter.

Well, I got 4 new Brahma girls last Friday. 3 are young, but 1 is almost two years old and her previous owner said she's going through a hard molt right now. She's a beautiful mottled girl, and she and all the others look healthy. I just want to double check and get a second opinion here.

She's skittish, so I haven't been able to hold her and inspect closely yet, but she doesn't appear to show any skin damage or signs of lice or mites. I can get within a couple feet of her but that's it for now. I have her and her sisters in quarantine for the next week, and the lowest temp overnight is supposed to be 38 degrees Fahrenheit. We also get a lot of wind where we live.

This is molting, right? And should I be worried about her ability to stay warm?

Thank you so much for reading!

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi!

The wind won't bother them if their coop is draft free. If she's going to be in drafts, I'd fix that somehow.

If you're worried she'll be cold, especially if the temps dip lower than that and she loses more feathers, I'd put one of those radiant heat panels, like Cozy Coop makes in there so she could stand/lay by it if she's cold. Those are safe, don't get hot, and shut off if they tip.

She's pretty even if she's molting!

 

[FunnyBunny89]

Hi!

The wind won't bother them if their coop is draft free. If she's going to be in drafts, I'd fix that somehow.

If you're worried she'll be cold, especially if the temps dip lower than that and she loses more feathers, I'd put one of those radiant heat panels, like Cozy Coop makes in there so she could stand/lay by it if she's cold. Those are safe, don't get hot, and shut off if they tip.

She's pretty even if she's molting!

Alright, thank you for the tips! She isn't in a coop yet, she's in an extra large plastic dog crate with a thick shade cloth draped over it to block the gaps. I'm considering putting her in the new coop tonight with the flock she's going to join, since her original flock seemed perfectly healthy, as does she. It just would be a short quarantine.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Yes she's molting. She will NOT want to be handled while in this state as it can be painful for them.

As long as she has draft free places to shelter in, I wouldn't worry about her half-feathered state. She still has a decent number of feathers, not completely naked like some birds get.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

She's skittish, so I haven't been able to hold her and inspect closely yet, but she doesn't appear to show any skin damage or signs of lice or mites. I can get within a couple feet of her but that's it for now.

I agree, she probably won't appreciate being held or handled right now as pinfeathers are extremely sensitive, but just an FYI for later: it's easiest to examine your birds at night, either after they go to roost or early in the morning while it's still dark. They don't see well in the dark and you can just pluck them off the roost to check them over, administer meds, worm them or whatever you need to do. Trying to catch chickens during the day is pretty much a fool's errand, IME, and in hot weather can cause them to die from heat stress.