Chickens lose feathers, it’s a fact of life. But sometimes the cause can be a mystery. You’ll first want to make sure that your chicken is in otherwise perfect health, and isn’t behaving lethargic or showing other signs of illness.

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Molting

Chickens molt feathers about 1-2 times per year, just like dogs sheds its hair. Their big molt usually takes place in late summer to fall in preparation for winter. However, I have had some unfortunate chickens molt after winter had begun. This can interrupt egg production, but not always. It helps to supplement your birds with protein to aid in the new feather production. Some will grow new feather faster than others, but the end product is a shiny new looking chicken. A sign that it’s a molt can be all the extras’ feathers lying around, but sometimes the chicken will eat these for the protein content to help the new feathers grow in. The following are pictures of my Speckled Sussex going through a drastic molt in winter, she was pretty cold for a bit.

Feather Picking

This is common when there are too many birds in an enclosed space. They get bored and bossy and pick on their fellow flock mates. Or sometimes chickens are in need of protein and pick on the weakest bird in the flock in order to obtain it. You can tell when its feather picking when a chicken is missing a large number of feathers, and they don’t appear to be growing back. In some instances, you may even see some blood. You can try to fix this problem by providing your chickens with more enriching activities to keep them busy. Or if you suspect your chickens are not getting enough protein, try adjusting their feed. If you have too many chickens for the area, then try re-homing some of them to see if that fixes the problem.

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