What are the white things on the feathers?

[Dragonlady1956]

Found these feathers on the coop floor this morning. What are the white things on the feathers? Seems to be only on a couple of feathers and not on the rest. I dusted them with DE 3 weeks ago and I have 4 chickens.

 

[DobieLover]

Stop dusting with DE. It's just a respiratory irritant.
Those are the keratin particles from the feather sheathing that gets shed/preened off the new feathers coming in, usually during the molt.

 

[Sally PB]

Those are the keratin particles from the feather sheathing that gets shed/preened off the new feathers coming in

I think of it as chicken dandruff. It is really visible on my black chickens this time of year.

 

[Dragonlady1956]

Stop dusting with DE. It just a respiratory irritant.
Those are the keratin particles from the feather sheathing that gets shed/preened off the new feathers coming in, usually during the molt.

Thanks!

 

[MissGreenJeans]

Yep—it’s normal, and I see a ton of it this time of year, too. If one of my girls sits in my lap and preens, I’m totally covered in bits of feather sheath when she hops off.

 

[MissGreenJeans]

Yep—it’s normal, and I see a ton of it this time of year, too. If one of my girls sits in my lap and preens, I’m totally covered in bits of feather sheath when she hops off.

Post-preen nap on my legs