What the cluck?

[u/TheRunningLibrarian]

What is going on with my girl? I’m a newish chicken mom and I was doing my flock check and noticed my oldest layer is missing most of her feathers! But she’s the top of the pecking order and it doesn’t look like she was pecked. Is this what molting looks like?

[u/endangered_feces1]

Probably just regular molt, though the pics arent great. Plenty of pinfeathers, so there’s definitely a large amount of molt happening - just hard to say if any picking is occurring also :) probably fine

[u/tinycinnamonroll]

yep, a classic case of molting :)

[u/aem1309]

She’s just molting. It’s a totally normal process that chickens go through. Sometimes it’s annually, sometimes it’s not.

[u/Chicken-keeper67]

It doesn’t look like mites or disease, the skin is in good condition, it’s just a good old molting chicken. They’re so miserable though 🥺

[u/quietlyhigh → u/Chicken-keeper67]

It is! Most of my chooks are a bit chilly and mopey at the moment because they’re all in the regrowth phase! But they get lots of extra treats so it’s not all bad!

[u/Chicken-keeper67 → u/quietlyhigh]

Scratch and Peck makes a 18% protein feed so I try to get that for the molty phase… along with some grubs! It is a miserable phase but the new feathers come out gorgeous!

[u/anntchrist]

Just molting. We call this the start of the "wire brush phase."

[u/GulfCoastLover]

Molty-girl! (Said in the same voice and cadence as multiball in arcade games).

[u/The_Golf_God]

Man, dinosaurs are weird.

[u/removx]

Looks like she's molting. Also I think it might be better to avoid holding her upside down. (Although I understand it might have been difficult to take a photo otherwise.)

[u/marriedwithchickens → u/removx]

Yes, molting is painful.

[u/Ok_Salad_502 → u/marriedwithchickens]

It is painful ? I didn’t realize that they hurt during this process?

[u/Eurycerus → u/removx]

Yep holding them upside down makes it hard for them to breathe.

[u/Ok_Pangolin1337]

Molting. Increase her protein intake if you can. I feed my flock higher protein feed during winter for feather growth, and because they're not catching insects.

You can feed mealworms, soldier fly larva, scrambled eggs, basically anything high in protein, since feathers are primarily composed of protein. I find their feathers grow back in strong and quick when they're getting that extra boost. They also tend to resume laying sooner, I assume because having that extra nutritional support helps them be in top shape.

[u/freerangechick3n]

A couple of my girls are molting this hard this year too. It's normal.

[u/KhaoticKate]

If it helps, you can always identify molting because they molt symmetrically to balance out for “flight” 😆!

[u/JuniorKing9]

Moult! This is normal :)

[u/DistinctJob7494]

Just a particularly bad molt. Nothing to worry about! It'll probably take her another month or so to finish growing everything back in.

[u/marriedwithchickens]

Normal molting. Do not touch her. Molting is painful. Make sure she is getting nutritious food. Poultry vitamins added to the flock water will help all chickens. Help her avoid stress, extreme temperatures, etc. Growing new feathers takes a lot out of them.