Tips if your chickens are molting

My birds often molt once a year. Molting is hard for hens. Make sure your hen is in fact molting and not the bottom of the pecking order, it can look the same: feathers missing around the head/neck and wing /tail feathers, low on energy. Here are a few things I try to do to help them out and keep them happy. A complete molt takes about two months and your hens will look quite bedraggled during this time.

1. Keep the coop warmish, if you can. 

2. Add protein to their diet. I do this by adding "Game Bird Feed"

3. Add more fresh veggies 

4. Increase the exposure to light

5. Keep your eye out for things that could stress them out.

Here are the things that can trigger a molt: change in available light and stress caused by lack of water or feed or cold temperatures.

She isn't molting, but she is curious

Molting.

Several of my birds are begining to molt. I consider this the time when I need to add more "light" to the coop.


Molting is the shedding and renewal of feathers and occurs about once a year. The order in which the different sections of the bird lose their feathers is fairly defined: head, neck, body, wings and tail. Molting is a difficult time for birds, since it involves hormonal fluctuations and increased energy requirements. Eliminate stress during this time: keep temperature in a narrow range (70-80o F), provide a high quality diet, and each day mist the birds with a fine spray or provide a pan for bathing. It takes about seven weeks for new feathers to complete their growth cycle. Domesticated chickens bred for high egg production have a definite molting pattern. A natural molt does not normally occur until the end of an extended, intensive laying period. Chickens that have been laying heavily for one year or longer molt easily in the fall since this is the natural molting season. If they finish their intensive year in the spring, they do not molt easily and may wait until the fall. A chicken loses feathers from various sections of its body in a definite pattern. The order is: head; neck; feather tracks of the breast, thighs and back; wing and tail feathers. Some birds molt more slowly than others; some molt earlier. A good high producing flock tends to molt late and rapidly. Decreasing day-length is the normal trigger for molting. Therefore, lighting programs for egg production flocks should provide either constant or increasing day-length. Stresses caused by temporary feed or water shortage, disease, cold temperatures, or sudden changes in the lighting program can cause a partial or premature molt. - from backyardchickens.com