Molting...What should it look like?

[Steadfast]

A few of my chickens are dropping feathers...
This is my first year owning chickens and I have never seen a chicken "molt" before...
I don't know what it looks like...or should look like....

Is this there a time of year it normally happens?

Do you guys have any pictures of what it looks like?

 

[chicmom]

Hi!

They can look terrible, half naked really, but then they can also just look a bit scraggly. Usually, they have several mini molts as they grow to maturity, losing those baby feathers, and they don't have their first full molt until their second autumn.

You can really have a very naked bird if they go through a hard, fast molt, and then some just have a more gradual molt.

It really varies!

 

[Ridgerunner]

You might find these first two helpful. I think together they describe the process fairly well.

The third one, the molting contest, is for fun. This shows how bad it can look. Don't let it scare you. As Chicmom said, sometimes they just look a little rough. You would not be sure they are molting if it were not for the feathers laying around.

Mississippi State describes molting
http://msucares.com/poultry/management/poultry_feathers.html

Kansas State feather loss
http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/library/lvstk2/mf2308.pdf

Molting Contest
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=394556

 

[Steadfast]

HA HA HA HA!

The last link is FANTASTIC!

Those pictures make my chickens molting problem look good!

I feel MUCH better about my birds now... THANKS!



I think this poor chicken is by far the funniest looking one on that whole molting topic: