Eglu Go With 2m Run For Sale

[madchickenlady]

My girls are currently going through their first major moult. My millefleur pekins are particularly bald at the moment, but they're all contributing to the feather blizzard in the garden. Usually, my ladies will happily return to their secure run when I scatter some mixed corn. The moult seems to have made them all rather grumpy, though, and they ignore the corn so I have to physically collect each hen from wherever she's hiding. I can feel the new quills beginning to poke through their skin, and they protest loudly at being handled I'm being as gentle as possible, but I am worried that I'm causing them pain. Do anyone elses hens behave this way during a moult?

[C&T]

One of mine is moulting - and she felt all prickly to the touch! Nicknames her the Hedgehog for a while!!

 

Didn't last long though, as the quills grew through.

[Daphne]

all completely normal - moulting hens often go either grumpy and/or withdrawn and/or won't respond in their normal way eg not as keen on food as usual. I try not to handle mine too much as I think it must be uncomfortable for them, rather than painful, but don't worry too much - without being able to bribe them you do often have to pick them up, otherwise its all too much like a Benny Hill sketch for my liking.....

[smokiechicken1969]

i had terrible panic when mine moulted about a month ago. all three bantams and two ducks. my garden was like an explosion in a pillow factory.

 

and without doubt, they were definately grumpy with it. my cockerel is fairly laid back but was giving the girls a really hard time, skittling his legs around them for the slightest thing. he even seemed to go off 'the other' if you catch my drift i think he was a bit embarrassed that he'd gone a bit baldy and lost his scarf and his tail.

 

im always telling a friend of mine to come around and see them as they're all so pretty. well she turned up when they were moulting and god only knows what she thought when she was greeted by these miserable, plucked chickens, sulking under the bushes looking like scruffy dust balls.

 

my biggest worry was they seemed to be off their food too. even favourtie treats were shuned a little, which caused me to wonder if it was something else making their feathers drop out.

 

i came on here and searched and i think as long as you see the new pins coming through and new feathers being formed then it is a moult and not an illness? dont take my word though as far from an expert.

 

i changed their food during the moult and increased the protien in their diet as apparently this helps with the new feather formation.

 

mine didnt last long but i think it depends on the breed of chicken maybe?

 

good luck. i guess chickens are a bit like us and get fed up when they're out of sorts.