Poor Victoria is molting, and she looks pathetic. If you didn't know better, you'd think Hero had gotten hold of her by the tail! She's been molting for about 3 weeks now, and she has completely stopped laying eggs during that time. She doesn't roam much, either, and seems happy to spend a lot of her time taking dust baths in the barn.
Esmerelda looks pretty ratty, too. You can see the pin feathers coming in where her wing meets her body, just below her neck feathers. She has stopped laying, too. The girls will be 18 months old on Sept. 21, and they started molting just about the time they were 17 months old. According to my reading, this is normal. Luckily, they should have all their new feathers back by the time cold weather gets here.
Gypsy is the only one who shows no sign of molting and is still laying eggs. Her production lagged a bit when the others "laid off" :) but she seems to be laying a bit more regularly now. Maybe she wanted to make sure we weren't completely egg-less and decided to do her molt after the other girls are done!
Why do chickens molt?
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