Molting occurs with chickens every year.
Molting Occurs When Chickens Lose Feathers
Life is seasonal and chicken feathers tend to fly when the temperatures drop. Days grow shorter and the weather becomes cooler bringing about molting. It may only be the end of summer but chickens recognize the temp going down and they begin to lose their feathers. At the same event, they begin to grow new ones which will over time give them a new coat. This will give them a fresh approach for the winter months and take them again into the seasonal patterns to come.
Weather dropping and shorter days are the first events that bring about the loss of feathers in both roosters and hens. This is God’s way of letting chickens know it’s time to molt or drop feathers and renew.
Molting is a Messy Event
Every year chickens molt and molting can be messy. Many animals preen feathers during this time leaving a white grainy look on the ground and by their full feathers. They drop their old coat and regrow a new in preparation for the cold weather and shorter days to come. During this time hens often do not lay eggs. They reduce their output and instead use their energy build-up to lose feathers growing new ones. Molting is a process and takes time. You know the process has begun in the henhouse and on the grounds when feathers start flying and dropping along fences, in the run, in nesting boxes and on the grounds around the coop.
Some hens take two or 3 weeks while others take up to a couple of months to lose and regrow feathers. When they do this, their feathers often appear hard and rough like a porcupine. This new growth is called pinfeathers because they look similar to a pin.
Molting is Seasonal
All poultry breeds go through molting. The loss of feathers often begins with the head, down the back of the neck. After loss on the neck the it goes down the back, across the breast and beneath the animal.
Molting is a seasonal thing and occurs every end of summer or fall.