VERY Abnormal fright and molting coming from flock - Advice please!!

[Peace Love Hens]

Hi,
In case you don't already know, I have been raising my flock of eight chickens for about two years now. I really need help regarding these abnormal happenings that have taken place in my flock in the past two days.

Three of our chickens are molting just fine. The other one ( a Buff Orpington/White Leghorn mix named Sunshine) has already completed her hard molt and has started on another soft molt. She is only on her neck so far, so I'm hoping that she'll just stop there.

Rubina, the other, hasn't molted in two years and just started on her soft molt. Should I be concerned about her only doing a soft molt and not a hard molt or is this acceptable?

The flock itself over the past couple of days has been absolutely terrified of 'normal' things. They freaked out when our Australorp pooped. They've been procrastinating bedtime the past two nights, which leads me to believe that there is a rat breakout of sorts.
Does this all tie up to be something like severe fright of something? I have pics of our backyard, the flock and the coop. I really need to figure out what is going on, so that I can make my flock feel safer. Thanks!

 

[Folly's place]

I think that you have an unwelcome visitor of some sort out there. Look hard for signs of rodents or other bad critters. Are any birds injured? Check for mites and lice at night, with a flashlight.
Rats will eat food, a lot of eggs, and kill roosting chickens. A weasel might kill them all!
Make sure your coop is predator proof if it isn't already.
Mary

 

[aart]

The other one ( a Buff Orpington/White Leghorn mix named Sunshine) has already completed her hard molt and has started on another. She is only on her neck so far, so I'm hoping that she'll just stop there.

You mean she lost most all feathers(hard molt), grew them all back, and then started molting again?
Some birds molt hard, others do not, both are normal.

 

[Peace Love Hens]

Pictures of the backyard: The 2nd pic is our trampoline. It is to the East if north is in front. There are more bushes that stretch back a good 4' or so to the neighbor's wooden fence.
To the direct left of the trampoline picture, are the bushes that surround the left side of the trampoline in real life. So, if you put the two photos side by side, that is the right side of their yard space. Our yard is pretty un-kept, and we have feral cats and skunk from what I know of. Rats are also pretty common scrounging around in our coop.

 

[Peace Love Hens]

I think that you have an unwelcome visitor of some sort out there. Look hard for signs of rodents or other bad critters. Are any birds injured? Check for mites and lice at night, with a flashlight.
Rats will eat food, a lot of eggs, and kill roosting chickens. A weasel might kill them all!
Make sure your coop is predator proof if it isn't already.
Mary

That was my thought as well. Upon thorough inspection every day, I have not found evidence of any visitors. No birds injured, I'll check again today. I have not been able to pick them up because nearly all are molting and I don't want to cause them too much pain. I'll check for mites/lice tonight. Yes, we've seen rats, tried to patch up the holes that they've been going through, with some success. We will double-predator proof it sometime this week, maybe tomorrow when we have time. Thanks so much for your advice!

 

[Peace Love Hens]

You mean she lost most all feathers(hard molt), grew them all back, and then started molting again?
Some birds molt hard, others do not, both are normal.

Yes. Exactly right. I have pics of her. It is just her neck so far, but I'm worried that it'll be the rest of her newly feathered body soon.

 

[Peace Love Hens]

Pics of Sunshine: It looks dark, but that's just because I unwisely used the flash on my camera.

 

[lazy gardener]

If you've seen a rat, you have a pretty bad infestation. I am also dealing with rats for the first time in over 30 years. I see to it that I bring any left over food in every night. It's a pain, cause the FF is in troughs, but... it's well worth it.

 

[aart]

Yes. Exactly right. I have pics of her. It is just her neck so far, but I'm worried that it'll be the rest of her newly feathered body soon.

Have you checked her over for external parasites and/or pecking from her flock mates?

 

[Peace Love Hens]

If you've seen a rat, you have a pretty bad infestation. I am also dealing with rats for the first time in over 30 years. I see to it that I bring any left over food in every night. It's a pain, cause the FF is in troughs, but... it's well worth it.

OK. Good to know. Our family built the coop out of scrap lumber, it really isn't too great, so I'm not surprised that rats are coming in. My ladies have half the yard/garden to themselves, but I will clean up food in their coop for sure.