It’s a beautiful day with the first fall feelings. Maybe the asters and goldenrod have begun to bloom, and you noticed monarch butterflies headed south. There’s a good, crisp smell to the air — but as you near the chicken coop, your heart drops! There are feathers everywhere.
A panicked headcount soon reveals that all your birds are still present — though they look a little rough around the edges. Then your heart calms as you realize … they’re just molting.
What’s going on? Why does it happen? And what should you do about it? Let’s delve into the basics of chicken molting.
What Is Chicken Molting?
Typically, as the days begin to shorten, chicken keepers notice more than just leaves blowing in the wind. Molted feathers are flying too, and when the time comes to refresh their plumage, chickens really aren’t very pretty. They have lost their sleek appearance and now look rumpled and bald in patches, as if they’d had a horrific run-in with a wood chipper.
You can laugh. They don’t mind — they’re supposed to molt.
Chicken feathers wear out. And when they’ve reached that point, the chicken knows it’s time to make new ones. When a chicken molts a feather, the old one falls completely off her body which allows room for a new feather to replace it. The new feather first takes the form of what looks like a plastic-covered toothpick emerging from the site of the old feather. It is a replacement feather, covered in a protective sheath.
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Eventually, the new feather, with a center rachis full of blood, pushes out of the sheath as a little tuft.As it emerges,the protective coating begins to flake off, and soon enough, the brand-new feather has fully grown.
You may notice lots of white dandruff-like material under the roost. These are the remains of the protective shafts that are shed during new feather formation. After growth is complete, the blood that pushed the feather out will return to the body, and the feather is now ready for a new season of service.
Why Does Chicken Molting Happen?
In healthy birds, molting is merely a natural refreshment of their plumage. Just like you shed and regrow hairs from your head, chickens need to periodically replace their bent, broken, and just plain worn-out feathers. Chicken molting gives them a fresh coat — often just in time to keep them warmer during the winter months.
一旦这个过程完成,你的鸟看起来就像新的一样。如果是第一年的母鸡,在第一次完全脱毛后,它们的羽毛颜色或图案可能会略有不同。
When Feather Loss Isn’t Due To Molting
Though chicken molting is a totally normal and a necessary part of their natural cycle, there is a time when feather loss can mean something other than feather renewal.
If you have an active rooster who fancies himself the Don Juan of the poultry-yard, he may strip the feathers from a hen’s back during his mating sessions. This may happen if you have a more aggressive rooster, or if you have too few hens to spread out his amorous affections. In the increasing sun of spring, it may turn a hen’s bareback burnt red, and increase the stress of feather loss.
To remedy the situation, either get a gentler breed of cock (ourOrpingtonis ever the gentleman), get more hens for the harem, or house the rooster away from your girls awhile to give them a break.
Bald patches in chickens may also be an indication of parasite overload, specifically, lice or mites. As you may expect, these bloodsuckers make the chickens itchy, and sometimes they react by pulling out their feathers. Treat the problem internally by feeding your birds garlic, and externally with a dust bath. Be proactive in dusting your birds.
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We treat new arrivals to the homestead — often loaded with parasites from their previous lives at overcrowded farms — by hanging them by the feet to calm them, and dusting them with a hefty scoop of clean, cool wood ashes. This makes them hilariously angry little dust storms once released, but it helps take out the lice during their quarantine period before joining the flock.
Bald patches in growing chicks is another cause for concern. They should be growing their first feathers, not losing them as quickly as they arrive. Cannibalism and feather-picking are preventable issues that typically arise from poor chick management. Give them higher protein feed, access to fresh grass, and more space, and the problem should decrease.
How Long Does Chicken Molting Last?
For many chickens, molting is a relatively quick process lasting for only four weeks or so. For others, it can seem to last forever. Some birds will merely lose handfuls of feathers here and there, appearing scruffy but still decently covered. Others will suddenly bare all withnaked necks, no tails, and sparse wings.
你的鸟儿可能同时换毛,也可能不同时换毛。去年,我养的鸟不到一个月就换了毛。鸡笼看起来就像一颗羽毛炸弹爆炸了!今年,母鸡们似乎轮流孵蛋,其中一只看起来很瘦,另一只又长出了尾巴。
Chicken molting seems to be a rather individualized process, so just sit back, take some funny pictures of your dear, ugly birds, and trust they’ll be looking like themselves soon enough.
How To Manage The Flock During Chicken Molting
First off, don’t handle your birds if at all possible. Bare skin is sensitive, growing feathers are brittle, and the feather shafts are full of blood as the new plumes emerge. Breaking a growing feather could result in a lot of unnecessary blood loss and stress. All of this trauma can result in a chicken that doesn’t want to be pet, touched, or picked up. She’ll probably be more standoffish during molting anyway.
Second, don’t expect your egg production to be at peak level during a molt. Birds may taper off laying or may stop laying completely until they’re back to perfect plumage. After so much hard work producing your morning omelet, give those birds a break and a bit of grace as they refresh themselves before cold weather sets in.
第三,一些养鸡人会在鸡的饮食中提供更多的蛋白质,以帮助补偿他们的身体为长出新的羽毛所做的大量工作。虽然你可以选择高蛋白层的食物或有争议的干猫粮,但古老的鸡肉传说表明,你可以利用更自然、更便宜的额外蛋白质来源。
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尝试一些昆虫,比如粉虫。如果你的鸟是自由放养的,它们可能自己在寻找虫子。完整的种子对鸟类来说也很好。在秋天的时候,南瓜通常被用作装饰,然后任其腐烂。把这些高蛋白的种子给换羽的鸟儿吧,而不是浪费在门廊上。肉对鸡也是极好的。毕竟,它们是杂食动物。如果你能克服这些恶心的因素,捕鼠器里的老鼠、鱼的残渣和新鲜的被车撞死的动物都是很好的自由蛋白质来源。
最后,不要担心你的羊群。这是一个自然的过程,我保证他们会恢复正常的。与此同时,在你等待你的鸟儿不再看起来那么光秃秃的时候,出去收集所有这些整齐的羽毛,做一些家居工艺品。我喜欢这个主意these feather flowersfor an undying winter arrangement, and making them with my own chickens’ feathers would be super-special (and cruelty-free).
如果你不觉得自己很狡猾,你仍然可以把羽毛耙起来,用你掉落的堆肥把它们翻起来。随着替代羽毛的生长,它们会把营养回馈给土壤。
So what do you do while your birds are on their annual break? Do you have any other questions about the feather molting process? Let’s discuss it below!
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