Are your chickens molting? 5 ways you can help (2024)

FAQs

How to help chicken molting? ›

When the birds are molting, a higher-protein diet will help support healthy feather growth so they can molt more easily. Switching to a feed that offers 16-22 percent protein is a good option, or you can add protein-rich treats such as mealworms, sunflower seeds, or scrambled eggs to their diet.

The feathers are lost from the head first, followed in order by those on the neck, breast, body, wings, and tail. A definite order of molting is also seen within each molting section, such as the loss of primary flight feathers before secondary flight feathers on the wings.

The cooler weather and shorter days signal the chicken's body and let it know that it is time to start molting. Similar to how a bear hibernates or a snake sheds its skin, your chickens need a way to refresh and detox their bodies. Chicken molting helps with this by getting rid of old feathers and growing new ones!

During the molt, birds will eat less feed and usually stop laying. The molt is important because it gives the reproductive tract time to rejuvenate, which will help the health of your birds and quality of their eggs. There are 2 ways to manage a molt: inducing a molt or letting birds molt naturally.

Provide your parrot with preening bird toys that encourage chewing, and preening to prevent preoccupation with irritating new feather growth. Foraging activities are also highly recommended offer your molting bird a healthy, natural diversion.

Moulting. Administer Chicken Vet Poultry Multivitamins as this helps provide the bird with additional support from protein whilst it's trying to replace its feathers (feathers are more than 80% protein). Administer in drinking water for up to 5 days, with fresh solution made up daily.

As feathers fall out, new feathers emerge. They are covered with a waxy shaft until they grow out and look like pins (they are called pin feathers). You'll notice that some chickens have a major molt and drop so many feathers that they look like a porcupine with mainly pin feathers visable.

During the moult, egg production ceases while the bird builds up its nutrient reserves. This is the most important moult for producers. Moulting often ends by July and the hen will start to lay again.

Molts may last anywhere from 2 weeks to 2+ months. The duration of a molt can vary quite a bit depending on the age and breed of your bird. Also, since we are thinking about egg production as reproduction, our young birds (at their reproductive peak!)

Over the course of the molt and through normal preening, the waxy casing falls off to reveal the new feather. Chickens look pretty scruffy at this stage in their molts, as they have a mix of old and new feathers falling out or growing back in.

Do chickens act sick when molting? ›

🐔Heavy molters drop their feathers over a day or two and can cause a scare! The whole coop looks like they were attacked because there are feathers everywhere! 🐔Hens in a heavy molt will act sick and sad. That's normal!

Forced molting, sometimes known as induced molting, is the practice by some poultry industries of artificially provoking a flock to molt simultaneously, typically by withdrawing food for 7–14 days and sometimes also withdrawing water for an extended period.

Late winter could certainly be problematic if you live in a very cold area. Especially if your girls are going through a "hard molt" rather than a "soft molt." With a hard molt, a chicken can lose most of her feathers all at once, which would leave her very cold.

The molting process can be uncomfortable or even painful as new feathers protrude from the skin, and sensitive chickens may become moody, withdrawn, or even aggressive if they are exceptionally stressed.

This feather loss phenomenon first happens around 18 months old and occurs annually. Backyard flock owners should expect about eight weeks of feather loss and regrowth but could take up to 16 weeks for some birds. The onset and length of molt looks different for each bird. Many factors determine how long chickens molt.

Backyard chickens often begin molting in the fall. Molting lasts 8 to 12 weeks and can cause a decrease in egg production. A high-protein feed can help molting chickens with feather regrowth. For backyard chickens across the country, shorter days often signal time for a break.

Supplement with protein to help them grow their feathers: eggs, meat scraps, mealworms, etc. They won't lay again until their molt is pretty much over.

Chickens need energy and protein to grow feathers back, so you'll need to be providing extra goodness while your molting chicken is in a special time of need! Whip out the mealworms, sunflower seeds, meat scraps, and whatever other high energy and high protein chicken treats you have that are healthy for birds!

This is quite common when they are moulting, It affects some more than others, they become withdrawn from the hustle and bustle as they feel lethargic and quite fragile, especially when their new feathers are coming through as it can be quite uncomfortable for them.