Now that the heat of summer has passed, and the fall nights are cooler, you may have noticed your coop is a little messier than normal. Perhaps much, much messier. This time of year, whenever I collect eggs I can’t help but wonder: is it Molting Season or do I have Exploding Chickens?
Molting season or exploding chickens? I can’t decide!
With autumn comes molting season. A chicken can molt any time of year, but most chickens will molt in the late summer or autumn. This gives the flock time to regrow their feathers before the cold of winter sets in.
My birds tend to hard molt—they lose all their feathers at once, rather than a few at a time over the course of a few months. It’s a terrible thing to behold: my poor ladies spend much of October and November hideously unattractive. For me, molting season is a time of rosy-skinned naked hens, and non-stop coop cleaning. What do you do with fallen feathers?
We won’t even discuss the turkeys.
Let’s not talk about it.
Henny didn’t want her picture taken, and knocked over the feeders trying to get away!
Because my hens hard molt, I don’t get very many eggs this time of year. This is normal: production will go down during molting season because the hens’ bodies are stressed, and they are using most of nutrients from the feed to regrow their feathers. You can help ease the process by supplementing with a higher-protein feed. I like turkey grower or meat bird grower; it makes the feathers grow in glossy, and helps the hens put on a little weight before it gets cold. As soon as I start to see eggs again, switch back to layer feed.
Until then, it is a never-ending battle keeping up with the mess, but it doesn’t last forever. Soon the hens will have their feathers in, and look fabulous!
Buffy looking great after finishing a soft molt.
While the constant clean-up can be annoying, I do like to bag up the excess coop debris in empty feed bags. Local gardeners go nuts for the feathers/hay/poo mix, and are happy to haul it off for their winter compost.
On a side note: most chickens will only replace the majority of their feathers after a molt, so if your hen has feather loss due to injury, she may wait to regrow any missing feathers. Increasing her protein may help, but don’t be surprised if she remains naked until fall!
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