What shows a chicken is molting?

[Chickengirl209]

New to chicken raising!
What shows my hen is molting? Does she loose all her feathers, or what? What will they look like? Also, when do they usually molt?

 

[Battlepants]

Of the more noticeable things are that the hens butt will fall off and your coop will look like a chicken exploded. Here's Nugget from this most recent winter:

 

[nuthatched]

Of the more noticeable things are that the hens butt will fall off and your coop will look like a chicken exploded. Here's Nugget from this most recent winter:
View attachment 3187318

I think her two feathers in her tail, very sassy.

 

[Sally PB]

One of my two year old hens has just three tail feathers.

 

[3KillerBs]

Here's a full documentation of my California White's molt last winter: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-molting-story.1504702/

 

[theoldchick]

The hen on the left is molting. The hen on the right is not. Some will have a mini-molt and lose a few feathers around the head and neck. The one pictured here is experiencing a mega-molt.

 

[Buckingham Palace]

They will loose feathers so there will be lots around and they will look pretty scraggly as they moult

 

[SmiYa0126]

New to chicken raising!
What shows my hen is molting? Does she loose all her feathers, or what? What will they look like? Also, when do they usually molt?

You'll start seeing full feathers that have fallen out underneath your chickens in the morning, and they look a little scraggly. My Plymouth blue is molting and her new feathers are a brighter color and have smooth edges.

 

[MysteryChicken]

 

[rosemarythyme]

Things to look for

- Extra feathers on the floor in coop and run (if you have different colored birds, you can usually ID which one is molting based on feather color).
- Molting birds often become more skittish and don't want to be touched. They'll slow or stop laying. Combs may get pale and shrivel a bit. They might go off feed a bit.
- A bird with a hard molt will blow out patches of feathers and then start regrowing pinfeathers in those patches, which gives them that porcupine look. A bird with a softer molt might look a little patchy here and there but won't have big obvious missing clumps.

My EE Custard molts pretty hard every year