The Chicken With A Raggedy Coat

Did you know that chickens naturally go through a process about once a year called molting?

During this time a lot of their old feathers fall out and then they have to grow new feathers. They also typically quit laying eggs for a while. I have read that during a molt the hen's reproductive tract basically regresses to the size it was before she started laying eggs and then it regenerates for the next production cycle. Pretty amazing!

As you can imagine, cold weather is not a great time to lose your coat! However, there are a few in our flock that have been molting the last few weeks...those cold spells are a little more stressful for hens without a full plume of feathers!

In the photo below if you zoom in on this molting hen's neck area you can probably see new little feathers starting to grow back in.

For some reason that I don't quite understand, when a chicken is molting, she will often end up very low in the social pecking order (it's called that for literal reasons!). Other hens will bully her, pecking at her and chasing her away from the food and water sources. This adds even more stress to an already stressed hen who is trying to regrow her covering.

Before Christmas I had a couple hens who were molting, and one day when I was gathering eggs, one of them came up to me on the nest, insistently communicating to me. I am pretty sure she was telling me she needed help because she wasn't getting enough to eat. I started scooping a little feed and putting her up where she could eat by herself for a bit, but it didn't take long for the others to notice and swoop in to nab her nibbles. Each day every time I would come into the chicken yard, this girl would come running to me, eager for me to pick her up and rescue her from the bullies and give her something to eat again.

So next I started putting her in a cage with some food so she could eat without others stealing it or scaring her off. But the freezing weather wasn't conducive to keeping water in the cage so I'd leave her in for a bit, then let her out so she could get a drink from the water tubs. It didn't take long for another molting chicken to recognize what was going on, so then we had to take turns for the two of them. Because the second chicken, though bullied a bit herself, was not being nice to the first so they couldn't get along in the cage together! Eventually their feathers filled in pretty well, and although they're still not quite blending in completely with the flock, they should be getting strong enough to hold their own a bit more.

Here's one of the first two girls now. Her feathers are looking much better, but you can see her comb is still smaller and not as bright red as most of the others...another indicator for this breed that she's not currently in lay.

Then this week I noticed how scraggly the hen in the first picture above was looking. Unlike the first hen, she wasn't seeking me out for help, but I was able to scoop her up one day and put her in the cage with some feed. She ate readily, but when other hens came up to the cage to see if they could get to the food, she was so certain they would attack her that she kept freaking out at their (intimidating) presence next to the cage!

I tried scaring them off, but that was of course only a temporary fix. Because it started warming up a bit, I put food and water both in the cage and left this girl there instead of putting her in and out periodically. I think she has realized the other hens can't get at her now because she seems more peaceful. And hopefully able to eat enough now to jump start the feather regrowth!

It takes time for a chicken to fully finish the molting process, so those who are going through it may not be laying eggs for a few weeks yet. Thankfully there are a lot of hens who aren't molting and continue to lay about every day! We're getting eggs every day from about 80% of the flock, with no artificial lighting or heat source--just plenty of fresh air, organic feed, and some shelter from the wind. 

Though they spend most of their time in and around the eggmobile and the nest/cafeteria shelters, on the nicer days there are quite a few who venture a little farther out into the pasture portion of the yard to forage. And they have done a number on the pile of previous years' composted wood chips! The pile may be flattened by the time spring comes :D. Bullies notwithstanding, the hens at Farm Connection are good at what they were born to do! Be sure to get yourself some of these eggs...you can't beat 'em. Well, I guess you could, but only with a fork or a whisk. ;)