Have you recently walked out to your coop and noticed that your hens were having a bad hair day?
A REALLY bad hair day?
With feathers everywhere and your hens looking absolutely ragged and homeless, it might look like a war has erupted between all of the chickens on your homestead. Welcome to the world of molting!
Of all of my birds, my rooster looked the worst during his teen molt. As he grew from the awkward young cockerel who ran from the hens into an assertive, well rounded rooster with the most beautiful lavender plumage, he transformed into the roughest looking bird I’ve ever seen in my life. He was not a pretty sight at all, as he looked like he had been through a tornado, a flood, and possibly took on a rottweiler while I wasn’t looking! However, he was simply shedding the feathers of his youth in order to become the beautiful young rooster he is today.
So, before you panic with your half bald, sickly looking hens, don’t jump the gun on a veterinarian just yet. You’re likely experiencing one of the intriguing stages of growth that all chickens go through. Let’s take a look at what to expect and how you can help!
What Is Molting in Chickens? Does Molting & Losing Feathers Mean Chickens Are Sick?
Molting is simply another term for shedding. Chickens will shed their feathers for various reasons, but molting tends to take place over the entirety of the chicken’s body.
The feathers will begin to fall out and be replaced towards the top of the head. As molting progresses, you will see the new feathers sprouting from the chicken’s skin. As the feather grows, the molt moves further down to the neck, and then on to the body. Once molting is complete, the chicken will be fully feathered and may look far better than it did in the months leading up to the molt.
With soft molting, you may not notice an adult chicken losing or gaining feathers. A hard molt can result in rough looking birds with bald areas, much like a chick who is gaining feathers for the first time.
A molting chicken is not necessarily sick; while a chicken can become sick during a molt, molting is not a symptom of illness. Check for the molting pattern, and see if new feathers are starting to come in. If there are just bald spots and no new growth, it is possible that the chicken is losing feathers due to malnutrition, age, or illness, or it might be getting picked on by another hen or rooster.
Why Do Chickens and Chicks Molt as They Mature? Why Do Chickens Molt During the Cold Fall and Winter Months?
As a chicken matures or ages, his or her feather will need to be replaced. Feathers will wear out from sunlight, weathering, parasites, and scuffles. They simply naturally deteriorate, just like our hair does. In pullets and cockerels that are approaching maturity, they simply outgrow the feathers that came in during the first two months of age. The old feathers can cause the chicken to retain water during wet weather, become colder during cool weather, and they could fail to protect the skin from intense sunlight. They might also be harboring lots of parasites, as well. The replacement feathers will be far better at protecting the chicken from the elements and potentially moody or hormonal chickens.
Chickens have a tendency to molt as cold weather sets in, with the shortened daylight hours. This makes perfect sense, as winter can be especially brutal in some areas. As the new feathers come in and the cold nights get longer, the chickens will find themselves far more warm and protected from the extreme temperatures. Molts usually complete within two months, but some hens and roosters might seem to molt for a very long time; even up to 4 months, 5 months, and 6 months of age! Further down, we’ll tell you how you can help these semi-naked chickens out during polar plunges.
How Long Does Chicken Molting Take for Chicks, Hens, and Roosters?
In chicks, molting occurs twice before 16 weeks of age. The first molt is the more noticeable one; up until 6 weeks of age (longer in some chicken breeds) you gradually see the fluffy chick down slowly being replaced with little feathers. By 5 weeks old, most chicks have gotten rid of at least 90% of their down and gained most of their baby feathers. The rapidly growing chicks will undergo another molting process as early as a few weeks later; beginning at around 8 weeks old, those first feathers will be replaced again. This molt could last until 16 weeks of age or longer, approximately the age at which many meat birds are dispatched.
Hens and roosters both will encounter an adult molt at roughly 18 months of age. This molting is simply maintenance rather than growth, and it tends to occur in waves within a flock of birds. Be prepared to accommodate your chickens during this lengthy process to keep the safe and healthy.
How Often Do Chickens Molt?
For most chickens, molting will occur annually during the onset of cool weather. However, there are instances that will cause a chicken to molt. Chickens who are under great stress, such as being in crowded or underfed conditions, may go through a molt prematurely. This process is a cruel forced practice in the factory farming industry, as producers will stress their birds to improve future production. Younger pullets and cockerels will go through the process at least twice in their first year, so you might find far more feathers in your coop if you are raising young birds for sale or meat production.
How to Care for a Chicken Mid-Molt: Feeding, Housing, Monitoring
Always keep an eye on your molting chickens in order to ensure that new feathers are coming in. If new feathers are not filling in, there could be a far different problem; the chicken could be sick or being picked on! Since this process is slow, give it a week or two to be sure. As the chicken begins molting, make sure that it is eating a high quality feed with plenty of protein. The chicken will require protein in order to produce new feathers. Try offering unused scrambled eggs to boost the protein intake of a molting hen or roo. If you don’t mind allowing the chickens to “till” a bed for the following growing season, you could place them into a tractor during their molt; a moving chicken tractor gives them access to lots of natural protein in the form of bugs. A molting chicken diet will help to prevent issues during the molting process, so pay close attention to nutritional needs; especially with breeding or production birds. If the weather is already getting very cold, make sure that there are no drafts in the coop, and provide the chickens with plenty of deep litter and hay. This will help to keep the chickens nice and warm.
Will Hens Stop Laying Eggs During a Molt?
Molting is a physically demanding job for the chicken. It will deplete the hen’s body, and could cause a reduction in egg laying. In some hens, they may stop laying completely! The best way to combat this lowered egg production is to boost the quality of the hens’ feed. As stated above, scrambled eggs can help molting hens; otherwise, simply offer free choice of a top quality laying formula. You might even decide to choose a higher protein feed, like those produced for game fowl. For those who feed naturally or free range, try adding extra protein rich feed or seeds such as soybeans or sunflower seed. For some hens, this will do the trick. If not, have patience with you chickens; they will lay again when their bodies are not stressed out. This is a natural process, and it usually follows an egg “season”. In nature, hens would not go broody or raise chicks during cold months; therefore, molting is a time of rest after an intense season of breeding, laying, and rearing young. A hen that lays and molts simultaneously is simply an over achiever, and you should be proud of her!
When to Be Concerned About Feather Loss or Molting
If you’re trying to decide between whether a chicken is molting or mites, look for the characteristic signs of molting:
- Occurs most commonly during fall/winter, after broodies hatch, or during the first 6 months of life.
- Feathers are replaced in order from head to toe; not in reverse.
- Over time, you will see new feathers erupting from the skin, growing, and filling in.
For mites, you will be looking for a few other symptoms. Some of the symptoms might be non-existent or extreme, depending on how bad the infestation is and how long it has lasted:
- Feathers may be missing on the back and on the sides of the chicken, where he or she is trying to attack the chicken mites as they bite; you probably won’t see new feathers coming in.
- Mites love to hide out in the coop. Look for these teeny, tiny red bugs when collecting eggs, and you might also see them on the birds while they are in the coop.
- Combs and wattles might become very pale under moderate to severe infestations; the mites cause anemia over time.
- Egg laying could begin to slow down, and potentially even stop as the hen’s body becomes weak due to mites.
A Quick Recap: Molting Chickens Symptoms
Let’s go over some quick symptoms and clues that will help you to know exactly when your chickens have started to molt, as this is very important for those who are new to chickens and homesteading!
- Chickens will molt between a few days old and 6 weeks, between 8 and 16 weeks (on average), at around 18 months old (likely closest to the shortening of daylight), and during the fall or winter thereafter.
- Molting chickens will require higher protein feed; they may be seen eating more than usual.
- Tiny “sticks” will erupt from the chickens skin; these are the beginnings of a new feather! As the feather grows from the follicle, it will blend in with the other feathers.
- Molting will start at the head and move downwards. They will not lose all of their feathers at one time, and they will not be bald.
- Egg production may slow down or cease. Of all of the molting chicken symptoms, this one tends to upset chicken owners the most; many even have to resort to buying eggs at the store when the molting hens feather up in unison!
