Why do chickens molt in the fall?

[SwampPrincessChick]

Fall seems like a strange time to molt, in my opinion. In the fall, temperatures are decreasing, and wouldn't birds (like chickens) need those feathers to stay warm? My only guess (that makes more sense than my other guesses) would be that they are shedding their thinner feathers to be replaced by new, thicker feathers. But I'm still not sure...

@SwampQueenChick

 

[Shabby Chic-Hens]

I dunno. maybe because they want the attention from us poor frazzzled chicken owners?

 

[sourland]

They molt in the autumn to obtain their new well insulated winter coat.

 

[SilverBirds]

They molt in the fall so they can have brand new fluffy feathers to keep them warm during the winter.

 

[K0k0shka]

Chickens have historically lived all over the world for a very long time, including in areas that don't have cold winters. Also, the wild ancestor that domestic chickens came from - the red junglefowl - is a tropical bird that wouldn't have dealt with serious cold neither in the fall, nor in the winter. So I'm not convinced that molting is related to the winter cold at all. Especially because, unlike wild mammals, chickens don't have a different coat for cold weather vs. one for warm weather, like when mammals shed the thin, summer coat to be replaced by a much thicker/longer/warmer winter coat that is often a different color, too, to camouflage better with the winter landscape. The new feathers that grow in on chickens are the same as the ones they just shed, they don't have a separate winter coat, and the new coat lasts them through all seasons until the following year's big molt (some may have minor molting in the spring as well, though not all do). So it looks like it's just a matter of replacing worn feathers, and the timing is... just what it is. Probably diluted by thousands of years of domestication and human-driven selection pressures in other directions.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

The real question is why do they molt at all couldnt they just grow what they need and keep it forever lol

 

[K0k0shka]

The real question is why do they molt at all couldnt they just grow what they need and keep it forever lol

Nobody keeps things forever. You shed hair all the time, so do mammals, snakes molt, birds molt... Your skin's average age is 5-6 weeks. After that the cells die and are replaced by new cells. The average lifespan of the cells in the human body is 7-10 years, after that they are replaced. Right now you don't have any of the original cells you were born with. Everything wears out and needs to be replaced eventually!

 

[3KillerBs]

Fall seems like a strange time to molt, in my opinion. In the fall, temperatures are decreasing, and wouldn't birds (like chickens) need those feathers to stay warm? My only guess (that makes more sense than my other guesses) would be that they are shedding their thinner feathers to be replaced by new, thicker feathers. But I'm still not sure...

@SwampQueenChick

They go into cold weather with a fresh, new coat to keep them warm.

Jungle birds may molt only a few feathers at a time, but temperate zone birds often do have hard molts like this so it's probably evolutionary advantageous.

The real question is why do they molt at all couldnt they just grow what they need and keep it forever lol

Look at Chipotle last year with her tail all worn out and scruffy looking. She needed new feathers badly.

 

[Tonyroo]

The real question is why do they molt at all couldnt they just grow what they need and keep it forever lol

Like all natural materials it brakes down or become unusable for its purpose. So new growth is required to maintain the well being of a bird.

 

[kcan2]

The real question is why do they molt at all couldnt they just grow what they need and keep it forever lol

Leaves, hair, feathers, and flower petals...can't they all just stay put?
The year my chickens were kept in the garage/coop, they didn't start molting until December/January. So, seemingly, the limited exposure to natural daylight or the warmer indoor temperatures did have an affect on their molting process.