Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[hallerlake]

Anyone else having a very heavy molt this year? My girls have been dropping most of their feathers all at once. It looks like something killed some birds in my pens. I could stuff a few pillows with what is on the ground under the roosts in the big coop.

My pens look like a pillow fight.

 

[CarolynF]

Hey ALETAG
What do you have planted in the Forage squares. I just saw them in your pics and thought it was interesting. How do you like them?

 

[AletaG]

Hey ALETAG
What do you have planted in the Forage squares. I just saw them in your pics and thought it was interesting. How do you like them?

Hi there Carolyn! I just went to the hardware store and picked up a cheap (5lbs for 8$) "green manure" seed mix. Has field peas, buckwheat, some field grasses, etc. I've recently picked up some barley also. The frames seem to work really well. They are green, the chickens eat at them, and still alive with no addn'l seeding. I planted pretty late, so thinking it will work better next year, but so far so good. Am experimenting with some chard and bok choi that are supposed to be winter hardy for the area, thinking of putting them in pots, with a protective skirt, like I was protecting from deer, just enough to keep them from digging up the roots, and unable to eat it totally gone.
I think the only thing with picking up a seed mix is to be sure that if there is a rye listed, that it's the grain rye rather than annual rye(grass) - If I remember correctly, the annual rye grass is bad forage for chickens... endophyte poison or something. I'd need to look that up again to be sure...

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Anyone else having a very heavy molt this year? My girls have been dropping most of their feathers all at once. It looks like something killed some birds in my pens. I could stuff a few pillows with what is on the ground under the roosts in the big coop. 

Oh, yeah- poor Bluebelle is just now fully covered, and all of the Hamburgs were pretty much naked starting in late August.

And Anni-Frid spent the last week looking like a baby parrot, which is a sad thing indeed.

 

[Hinotori]

Well my worst Rock is looking more like a bird. I still have a flock full of porcupines. There is a silver ameraucana that looks like a chew toy.

 

[nbd3um1]

So will all chickens molt before winter? Is this a process that they should happen and a sign of something wrong if it hasn't?

None of our chickens have been molting, should we worry?

 

[PheasantsFirst]

Most chickens should molt before winter except chicks hatched this year.(I think)

 

[nbd3um1]

Most chickens should molt before winter except chicks hatched this year.(I think)

Okay well ours hatched this spring, so maybe we will not see it this year. Good to know to expect it next year!

 

[Hinotori]

Some of mine molt very lightly their first year. Depends on how early in the year they hatched. My 30 week old pullet isn't molting. Of course she hasn't started laying either to my dismay.

 

[CarolynF]

So will all chickens molt before winter? Is this a process that they should happen and a sign of something wrong if it hasn't?

None of our chickens have been molting, should we worry?

I've learned that every chicken will endeavor to drive you crazy by doing what they want, when they want, regardless of the "rules".

Don't get too invested in "should" because chickens just aren't that cut and dried. My first 2 birds never really molted the way everyone kept talking about, just a few feathers here and there. On the other hand I have a barnevelder who's on her second molt for the year, and dang she's slow!