Sooo much pooping

[Millie-Annie]

my gorgeous feather duster looks like so moth eaten. She has moulted really quickly, yesterday she looked a bit raggy but today she has lost her tail, her neck, her chest, and her back end. But on the bare bits new feathers are already showing quite a bit, so she must have been growing the new ones before she lost all the old ones. Is that unusual?

 

All three of my pure breeds are moulting. My Welsummer looks like a quail

[jimnpaula]

I believe the new feathers push the old ones out, like when we grow our adult teeth. Some birds moult patchily for ages and some, like yours, get it over with very quickly.

[redsunset]

I have a heap of chooks moulting just now, from hybrid to the posh ones! Garden looks like an explosion in a pillow factory! New feathers come in fairly quickly though. Thank goodness, as not cold yet.

[Daphne]

Its supposed to a good sign if a bird moults quickly - as long as it feathers up again quickly Its supposed to mean that the bird is a good layer, and may well be true, but as orps take an age to feather fully I can't really say one way or another with any confidence. My little polands used to have regular neck moults in between their real moults and they were excellent layers which is a bit counter-intuitive

[Millie-Annie]

I completely agree about the explosion in a pillow factory. I thought something had got them the first morning. I have never known moulting like it. I have always had ex-batts before these three and they don't seem to moult as drastically In fact it is a bit ironic that my last ex-batt, Ivy, looks the healthiest