When do they Molt and other questions?

[jsimplytx125]

Hi all,
Well I'm in South Central Texas and it's hotter than H * LL down here. Soon to be 100+ days of over 100 degree heat.
My questions are:
1 When should I expect my 4 month old RIRs to begin a molt?
2 Do they all molt at once?
3 How long does it take?
4 Will the heat down here affect the molt? (will they be neked longer?)
5 What about insect pests, do they have a feast as this is happening?
My curious mind wants to know!

 

[Lunachick]

Hi! I'm not sure if area has anything to do with a molt, I think they just molt randomly. It's usually after they're about 18 months old.

But from my experience: One hen went through a mild molt and just dropped a few feathers at a time and was hardly noticable. The other hen molted in the middle of winter (and it gets cold here) and she had a hard molt and looked terrible. I had to give her extra protein ie: some meat & scrambled egg & some cheese & yogurt, that seemed to help. She just hung out in the coop basically, til she sprouted new feathers.

I have a hen right now recovering from a hard molt also. She's about 3 years old. This was all their first major molt.

One hen had a case of lice near her vent, and when she molted the lice eggs went with the feathers (after I dusted her) I raked up all the feathers and tossed them out.

On average, the molt lasts about a month or so, depending on how severe a molt they go through. Hope some of this info helps!

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

i agree with Lunachick. It is very random. i have some chickens who molted at about a year, others are about three and have never molted. With some, it's just a few feathers. With others, you go out in the morning and it looks like they had a pillow fight - feathers everywhere. One of my silkies molted head first. i thought she was going bald. My sweet EE hen molted at about two years and she looked so horribly pathetic. She lost all her muff feathers, her tail feathers, and tons more. i thought she was sick, but it was just a really hard molt.

It does tend to last about a month, and does help to provide extra protein to get them back in shape.

 

[gritsar]

Some of my hens went thru a light molt in the 7 to 9 month range. The ones that didn't are now starting a molt at 17 months and they look much worse than the others did. Huge piles of feathers everywhere.
I've upped their protein intake, just as I did before. They are growing the new feathers as fast as they lose the old ones.

 

[jsimplytx125]

Ohh, Okay thanks guys.
So my answers are:
Not all at once, about a month, feathers grow in as they lose them, and those pictures of neked chickens I see online are jokes.

How about pests, no big changes?