4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[lisaroo2]

Well, by the look of the amount of white feathers around at the mo it looks like that our Daisy is going to have her first moult. Chicken spice is being added to the girls food and egg laying has dropped right off, none today at all for the first time in 12 months. The poor things. I suppose this will trigger Maisie and Rosie, this will also be their first moult. I have collected some of the feathers to use in my cardmaking and to put in my chook s"Ooops, word censored!"book.

 

How long will the moult last and is there anything else I can do?

[Barkisland]

Don't know, but I think one of mine must be moulting too, lots of feathers today, and as you say, egg laying has really slowed down. 3 eggs from 6 hens in the past 2 days.

[Fur 'n' Feathers]

Our Kilo has been gently moulting for 2.5 months now. We understand it can take up to 3 months. At least she's not baldy.

[alet_chicken]

How long it takes really depends - each hen is different. For example, our Brenda has been gently moulting too for at least 6 weeks now, with no end in sight, while another girl (Madge) seems to be going for the Transylvanian spiky bottom look, and getting over it in a matter of weeks.

 

I have read that a bit of extra protein in their diet helps their feathers to grow back better. We feed ours cat food or dried mealworms, which they love.

[Chucky Mama]

Monica one of our bluebelles is now beautifully re feathered after about 5 weeks thankfully, she looked proper scraggy and the garden looked like there had been a massacre. I did worry about her nutrition as she also looked generally low. I added some probiotics to her drinking water and a little to the feed and treated her to some sweetcorn and mealworms for extra protein.

[lisaroo2]

Thanks for your replies. Why they insist on moulting when the weather is cold beats me

[whoopsie]

I'm glad it's not just my hen that picks stupid times to do things - Barbara's started shedding feathers and is looking a bit thin - though when I picked Margot up she felt about the same weight just fluffier. I'm stuffing them silly with food to help boost them up. What's chicken spice?

[Old Speckled Hen]

One of my four, the speckledy, is about ten days into her first moult.

Lots of new feathers are coming through though she has a bald wobbly parson's nose

She looks half thr chook she used to be.

The black rock looks set to follow and I'm getting two eggs daily instead of the usual four.

They are eating very little too .... more for our visiting pheasant who sneaks into their run.