My hens that are molting right now have been doing it gradually since October and don't have any bare spots. I posted on here a while ago about one of my BA's who had more skin exposed than feathers (a result of feather picking and a fox attack) and how she survived the winter last year. She went outside during the coldest days - she didn't stay out for long stretches of time, but neither did any of the feathered ones. She started molting in October too and now she's fully feathered and gorgeous. When she began molting, she looked like a porcupine as all her feathers were coming in at once. Maybe when they drop a lot of feathers at once the new ones come in faster? I don't know if it's a breed characteristic or a cause and effect thing since she was so bare they all came in at once. As far as this year goes, so far all of mine aren't spending much time outside during this cold snap we're having. They do have the option though. One thing I read on here was that some people give black oil sunflower seed during the molt to give added protein. I add BOSS to their scratch so they get it everyday, but when my featherless chicken was going through her molt, I threw out double the BOSS and everyone has very shiny, healthy looking feathers. How is your hen doing? Are the new feathers coming in yet? We don't heat our coop, but we did run an extension cord up there to hook up a heater for under the waterer. I think it's adding to the warmth in the coop because when I go in there in the mornings, even with the single digits we've been having, it has been about 33 degrees or so inside the coop.
