We’ve reached that time of the year where you get no fresh eggs from your homestead flock and it looks like someone plucked all your hens: welcome to molting season. All birds molt, both wild and domestic. It is a natural occurrence that is often triggered by weather patterns. Molting is essential for a chicken to stay healthy and for it to be prepared for the coming winter months. Let’s learn all about molting, including why chickens molt, how they molt, and what you can do to help your homestead flock complete a successful and quick molt this fall!
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Molting is when an adult chicken gradually looses its old feathers in order to re-grow new feathers. A healthy chicken who is over 1 year of age will usually molt once a year in the late summer or early fall. It is often in sequence with the daylight hours. As the daylight hours decrease, it signals the time for a molt.
Chickens don’t usually complete an adult molt until they are 15-18 months of age. So chicks that you raise this spring won’t molt until the following year.
Sometimes a chicken will molt out of season due to stress. Going without feed or water for a length of time, a predator attack, sudden weather changes, or sudden light changes can all cause a stress molt. Stress molts are usually not a complete molt and sometimes might not even be noticeable. Broody hens will also go through a minor molt after setting on eggs.
Chicks also go through a series of mini molts as they grow in their adult feathers. The first mini molt occurs as they grow out their downy feathers. During the first week of life their wing feathers grow out, then their tail feathers grow out during the second week. By the third and fourth week their body feathers are growing out. By the fifth week most of their downy feathers will be grown out.
After the first mini molt, the young chickens go through two more mini molts as they grow in their adult feathers. The most noticeable mini molt will be when the bird is between 12-16 weeks old. The last mini molt usually occurs right before young pullets start laying, so around 20-24 weeks of age. At this point the chicken will have all of its adult feathers in and typically won’t molt again until fall of the next year.
For wild birds, molting helps to renew their feathers in preparation for migration or cold weather. In chickens and domestic fowl, molting helps improve their laying quality, feed efficiency, and renews their feathers. While molting does initially increase laying ability, you will find that after each molt, laying won’t stay as consistent as in the last season.
Part of that has to do with the hen getting older and her productivity slowing down. Sometimes a domestic bird will molt twice, one big molt (usually in the fall) and then a lesser molt (usually in the spring). The annual fall molt can have two degrees, a hard molt or a soft molt.
A hen who goes through a soft molt will gradually loose her feathers in a molting sequence (discussed later on). A soft molt often takes longer. During a hard molt, a hen will seem to loose all her feathers at once. Even though it looks terrible, the duration of the molt will be shorter as the hen immediately starts growing in new feathers.
The best egg layers in a flock of hens will molt late and hard and the lazy egg layers will molt soft and early. The average time for a complete molt to take place is 14-16 weeks. However, some chickens may take up to 6 months to complete a molt.
Roosters will also molt during the fall to renew their feathers. At this time roosters are sterile and will not be able to fertilize eggs. Once they are done molting, they will be able to fertilize eggs again.
Chickens have a molting sequence in which they lose their feathers. The molting sequence is as follows: head, neck, back, breast, stern, thighs, wings, and then the tail. You can tell a chicken is at the end of losing its feathers when it has no tail feathers.
Chickens than regrow their feathers starting at the tail and going in reverse. The newly emerging feathers are called pin feathers, and they are filled with blood to nourish the growth of the feathers. The pin feathers are covered with a keratin sheath (called a epitrichium). When a chicken preens, it will remove the keratin sheath.
Once the new feather has grown out, the blood will be cut off from the feather. That’s why broken or torn feathers will not regrow until the next molt. That’s also why newly emerging feathers are so fragile and will bleed if torn or ripped.
Fun Fact: Wild birds will molt the same flight feather on each wing at the same time, that way they are not off balance in their flight.
Molting can sometimes be painful for a chicken as new feathers are growing into tender feather follicles. Avoid picking up molting chickens as the new feather follicles are very sensitive and it can hurt the bird when pressure is applied to them. This is often the reason why many friendly birds will become skittish while they are molting.
Since feathers are mostly made up of protein, a chicken needs lots of dietary protein during the fall molt. While proper protein is important year round, the body’s demand for protein increases during the fall molt as it grows in new feathers.
Increasing your flock’s daily protein intake during the fall molt can help them complete a successful and faster molt that doesn’t drain their energy reserves for the coming winter. You can increase the protein in your homestead flock’s diet by switching feeds or adding supplemental protein sources into their diet.
If you choose to do a feed switch, do so gradually to prevent any digestive upset. You will also need to switch back to the regular feed after the molt is over. High protein feed options include a 17-20% chick starter or grower feed, a broiler grower feed, or a gamebird feed (usually 20-25% protein). You can also simply mix these feeds into your flock’s current feed using the Pearson’s Square to achieve a higher protein content in your flock’s diet.
Sometimes a feather follicle will burst or open too soon and become bloody. This often happens if the feather follicle gets snagged or pressured. If this happens, I just wipe off the blood and spray it with Vetericyn. Sometimes I will keep that bird separated from the flock in case any blood returns. Chickens will peck at each other if they see blood on one of them, eventually they could even kill the bird. If it continues to bleed, clot it with cornstarch and keep the chicken separate until you can wipe the blood off.
For more tips on molting first aid, make sure you read Emergency Care for Molting Chickens.
Molting is a stressful time for your flock, so try to keep your flock as stress free as possible during molting season. Avoid introducing new flock members during the molt. Try not to handle the birds too much and don’t allow anyone or anything to chase the birds while they are going through their molt.
Avoid re-arranging the chicken coop or changing where to food or water is located during your flock’s molt. In some parts of the country, sudden temperature swings can occur. If a cold snap occurs during your flock’s molt, make sure you know how to properly winterize the coop, prevent cold stress, and help your birds stay warm even when they are molting.
It is important to keep a rooster at his proper weight while he is molting. This will ensure that he becomes sterile again after he finishes molting, which is especially important for cocks used in breeding programs. Most of the time this won’t be too big of an issue. Especially if the rooster is allowed to partake in the high protein treats you provide during the molting season.
Many hens stop laying during the molt. Molting requires a lot of protein and energy. Energy and protein that is normally put towards egg production will need to go towards growing in new feathers. The drop in laying is also due to a natural end of a hen’s laying cycle (which usually starts in the spring) and due to shorter daylight hours.
Decreasing daylight hours not only triggers the molt, but it also stops a hen’s reproduction cycle. A hen needs between 12-16 hours of light in order for the correct hormones to be triggered for laying. When a hen doesn’t sense enough light, she will stop laying. That is one reason why a sudden change in the amount of light a hen gets can cause a molt.
Once a hen has finished the molt, egg production will increase and egg quality will become better. A hen will only start laying again if she gets the proper amount of light, even if it has to be supplemental light. Although, the more molt seasons a hen goes through, the more she will decrease in egg production and quality. Initially after a molt, a hen will lay bigger, better eggs but the quality declines quicker after each molting season.
Because a feather is made up of 85% protein, chickens often benefit from extra protein in their diet during their molt. While you can switch your flock’s feed over to a higher protein formula, an alternative is to simply provide you flock with daily protein supplements.
I make a molt mix for my flock with some high protein ingredients.
Give this treat to your flock periodically throughout their molting season. Offer about 1 tblsp. per flock member. However, I suggest that you don’t give this mix to them every day and make sure you decrease how often you feed this mix as the molt comes to an end.
Too much protein can cause health issues like gout and some of the other ingredients in the molt mix are also high in fat. Sunflower seeds in the shell are high in fat which can cause fatal issues such as fatty liver syndrome.
Learn more about why protein is so important by checking out Balancing Protein in a Flock’s Diet and find some more high protein supplements to give your flock in this Protein Sources for Chickens list!
Now that you know all about molting, you can help your homestead flock have a quick and uneventful molt this season! They will appreciate the high protein snacks, stress-free environment, and the extra management practices you put into place during the fall molting season. Mix up a batch of DIY molt mix and make sure you have some high protein supplements for chickens on hand as molting season hits the homestead. Soon your flock will be fully feathered and be ready for the coming winter months!
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by Alexa
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Extremely informative! Learned a lot. I see my favorite rooster is doing well. 😉 Glad to hear the newcomers are doing well. Now about those mealworms! UGH is only word I can think of. We had a beautiful red breasted hawk fly in for a visit yesterday. I think he wanted to make a meal of my little sparrows. Pippin and I discouraged him and I hope he goes somewhere else for lunch. Enjoy your weekend!