Why aren’t my hens molting?

[bittyflock]

I live in Northern CA and we have had an extremely mild fall - milder than usual. My hens have always molted in the past but haven’t this year aside from a stray feather or two. Is this because of the mild weather, and should I be concerned that they won’t be warm enough once it does get cold?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Every molt year can be different. Some molt hard, and some molt so soft you don't even notice. I have a few who haven't started to molt yet either. Last year I had birds molting in January.

They will do it in their own time.

 

[Cindy in PA]

I have 9 hens & many have been molting slowly this year since October, but the only way I could tell was that their new feathers were blue & not faded to gray like they were. They continued laying 4-7 eggs, until 2 weeks ago. For the last 2 weeks I was down to 1-3 & now there is an explosion of feathers in the coop. The ones that got most of their body feathers, still don't have their tail feathers replaced. IDK, but it seems like another weird molting year for me.