Why do chickens molt in the fall?

[SourRoses]

It happens in fall specifically because it's not a good season for raising chicks in nature. Even in warm zones there's a decrease in food availability as the plants are not fruiting, so even the bugs are less. Some trees are changing out their leaves so the protective cover is diminished. And the predators are getting hungrier.

For those reasons, they don't need to lay eggs in fall and that leaves available nutrients they can use to make new feathers.
As others have said, chickens are naturally warm region birds. The replacement feathers are no different, unlike mammals which change coat types. So, I think it doesn't have anything to do with temperatures, only when they can afford to make feathers.

Spring: Eat up to recondition, find partner, build nest, Lay Eggs.
Summer: Feed chicks, feed chicks, feed chicks.
Fall: Make Feathers, try to fatten up.
Winter: Search continually for enough food to get by.

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

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.

Thanks for all of the information!

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.



Look at Chipotle last year with her tail all worn out and scruffy looking. She needed new feathers badly. View attachment 3316041

Makes sense, I guess all things get worn out over time!
Also, nice name, Chipotle!

It happens in fall specifically because it's not a good season for raising chicks in nature. Even in warm zones there's a decrease in food availability as the plants are not fruiting, so even the bugs are less. Some trees are changing out their leaves so the protective cover is diminished. And the predators are getting hungrier.

For those reasons, they don't need to lay eggs in fall and that leaves available nutrients they can use to make new feathers.
As others have said, chickens are naturally warm region birds. The replacement feathers are no different, unlike mammals which change coat types. So, I think it doesn't have anything to do with temperatures, only when they can afford to make feathers.

Spring: Eat up to recondition, find partner, build nest, Lay Eggs.
Summer: Feed chicks, feed chicks, feed chicks.
Fall: Make Feathers, try to fatten up.
Winter: Search continually for enough food to get by.

I assume that's why every other bird molts in the fall (and sometimes spring), too. I've never thought about the fact that fall is the best time to molt, because birds don't really have much to use their nutrients on.

 

[Unswydd]

Good information in this thread. I have a BR molting now severely and it's getting quite chilly at night. She's eating extra protein per the advice on here but she's practically naked. I'm wondering if I put down some straw it will be enough to keep her warmer. She does roost with her fellow inmates tho so maybe she's ok. Just not sure. It's our first molt. None of her sisters are molting like she is tho. They're kinda slow mode. I use the softer horse bedding in the coop. I'll get a picture of her tomorrow after work. She doesn't appear to be in distress at all.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Most of my girls have been through, or are going through, a soft molt. But I have one poor girl who looks as if she's done battle with a lawn mower and come out the loser. And she obviously doesn't feel good and doesn't want anyone near enough to touch her, poor thing.