Young hen

[Rebecca dean]

I am now at my whits end what to do with my girl. She wasn’t well and was showing signs of gapeworm. I wormed the whole flock and kept her in for a few nights, she was eating but being fussy I have changed their feed to something a bit smaller as she’s quite a small hen compared to my other bantams. She was moulting the other month hen stopped but she moulted for a good month and a half and now today she is loosing feathers again, possibly moulting. The garden looks like a pillow has exploded. Is it normal for them to moult again. She’s lively and currently pottering around the garden. She’s eating and poop is normal and she has colour to her face. I just don’t know if this is normal. I have checked her and the other girls and there is no mites.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

The full molt can take months. Generally the tail and wing feathers are the last to be dropped. Sometimes you notice it and other times you don't. Poorer layers will often take a long lazy time molting. Some appear to have an initial partial molt at the end of summer and than they go through a full molt later in the fall.