The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: loosey on June 01, 2011, 09:31:45 am
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Morning all :wave:
I think one of my hens is going through the moult? When we had chicjens when I was little, I remember them looking all scraggly but it wasn't util much later in the year ... is this a normal time?
The other 5 are as normal but one fo them only has one tail feather left, is pretty bald underneath and has all of her fluffy white bits on show ::) She's active and chatty, eating and drinking as normal and her comb looks nice and healthy. They are all wormed and I believe free of mites.
She looks like a rescue case! :(
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whats the weather like with you?
if its changeable, it could have confused her, poor little thing!
you sure that nobody's pecking her?
I've just moved the tiny frizzled pekin out from where we caught a huge b.c Maran sitting on her and stripping feathers from her back and neck!! she looked like a nearly oven-ready turkey! she's in with the growers, but runs scared (they're bigger than her already - I didnt realise) at the moment.
she may yet end up living with the quail, they're nearer her size :D
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When you were little, the hens were probably hatched in spring/early summer, and were reared naturally. They likely were kept on free range and fed a daily scratch feed. Their diet throughout summer would be balanced by their consumption of lots of beasties and vegetation. As moult is predominently age-related, these birds probably all moulted together and did so in the autumn.
Moult is predominently age-related. Egg production is light-regulated. Both can be influenced, however, by deficiencies in the diet, and by stress. Hens can't be 'confused' by weather patterns, although environmental conditions may cause stress.
If your hens are of mixed ages, and have come from different sources, perhaps experiencing changes in their management, it is likely that some may moult at 'odd' times.
The other thing, of course, is that some hybrids are inclined to 'lay their feathers off', just in the same sense as a dairy cow or goat may 'milk off her back'. In a flock of hybrid layers, there will always be those that have very few feathers, but you can bet your boots those are the best layers.