Exploding chicken!

[Velisabeth]

So I came home from a walk to find a ton of one of my chickens feathers in front of my patio door. Yesterday she had a close call with a hawk. I’m curious is this stress induced feather loss or normal molting? I checked her out and she seems as cantankerous as ever( normal for her) just loosing a bunch of chest feathers. I checked her over for pests but can’t find anything. Any thoughts would be helpful.

 

[Mvan42]

Ummm, I really thought there was an exploding chicken. Lol

Stress is possible it could the hawk have came back.

 

[dawg53]

So I came home from a walk to find a ton of one of my chickens feathers in front of my patio door. Yesterday she had a close call with a hawk. I’m curious is this stress induced feather loss or normal molting? I checked her out and she seems as cantankerous as ever( normal for her) just loosing a bunch of chest feathers. I checked her over for pests but can’t find anything. Any thoughts would be helpful.

Yes, there are stress induced molts. I have several birds in early molt, most likely due to a move to a new location. My EE left a pile of feathers in the middle of the pen the other day and she's at the top of the pecking order.

 

[kissezmychicken]

Thank God it didnt actually explode.. Ew.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Actually sounds like she might have had another close call with the hawk.