My best layer, Boone, began her molt this weekend! The weather was awful with lows below zero and ice everywhere! Is this normal for a chicken to wait so long? As she is also a pet, she is not unfamiliar with the "people coop" and is staying indoors until either the weather breaks or her feathers grow longer than the 1/4 inch nubbins'. She can out-beg the dogs for table scraps (she's even sat at her own place to eat oatmeal).

Hehehe, sounds like our house! We had a hen that went lame. We moved her to a cage in the house (game room) under a heat lamp. We took her to a vet and got her some shots and meds and even gave her physical therapy in the evenings while watching TV. She fine now, but will NOT stay with the other chickens back at the barn. At dusk, she comes up to the house and waits on the back porch to be let in like a puppy. We'll probably never get her to rejoin the troop of 60 hens at the barn again.

If I were you, I'd keep her in the house. Can't hurt.

I WILL draw the line if one of our full size ducks gets sick, though!

:'O

Good Luck!!

Pete & Justine Theer
Kempner, Texas

So this hen spends time indoors? Maybe because she is subjected to warmer temps and more light when she's inside, it throws off her bio clock, making her brain think--"hey, it's warm, there's light...must be spring time, so I'll get rid off these old feathers..." I'd gradually decrease her time inside, untill she is fully off the molt, and reintroduce her back to the outside coop, or wherever. Then, unless she "escapes back into the house" (hehe), she should return to a normal molting cycle in time...

tell Boone to take care!

No, Boone spends most of her time outdoors. Two summers ago (when she was a pullet), I propped the backdoor open to house. She and 4 others would be regular morning visitors, even having one (Isobar) climb the stairs to our son's room to lay her egg in his toybox, then hop down stairs and outside to eat. Crumplehead would watch tv on the couch and leave her egg, then head outside.
The kids and my husband complained about the mess as nobody is housebroken, so Boone is the only hen that will now come in as she's invited, the others are too shy. This week is her first visit since August.
The last extended visit she had was October 97 when her head swelled up. She stayed inside for about a week on antibiotics. It also happened that she began her molt the following week. Perhaps she's a weird molter.

I think this has just been a strange year for molts (still blaming El Nino). Mine all molted quite late and some are just now in the middle of it! I've heard a lot of other people have the same problem too. Good luck!

I need more info on molting. I have a early molt. I don't know how to help this. It is about 40 in the chicken house. I haven't gotten eggs for weeks now. This has not happened this early before. Usually in the spring. These chickens are about 2 years old Thanks

Moulting is not always predictable--the hens have their own "rhythm" and the individuals in a flock do not always moult at the same time. Sometimes in the worst cold of winter--some will moult! Two year olds will not start laying again very soon after moult, and will not lay eggs in the quantity they did their first year. Not to worry. But begin to plan for their replacements in the early spring. CJR

Can anyone advise me. I have Black Rock hens. Two of them have lost feathers on their backs at the rear near tail. One looks as if it has a "bare bottom" is this usual? I am hoping it is just down to molting.
Betty