My Chooks Are Losing Their Feathers. All about Chicken Maulting

Don’t be concerned if your chooks are moulting, it’s normal

If you’ve not seen it before then it might seem a little strange, or even a little scary. There seems to be feathers everywhere, the chicken coop is full of feathers and your chooks look scraggly.

This is the process of maulting when your chooks lose their feathers and regrow them. It is an entirely natural process and perfectly normal.

Maulting commonly occurs in autumn, though not necessarily, and in my experience can occur at any time of the year. Moulting will coincide with your bird stopping laying.

Generally speaking a chook will moult once a year, though on occasions this can occur twice or not at all.

It is not normal for a maulting adult to lose all their feathers. Whilst the moulting takes place in certain feathers at certain times not all will be lost. Generally the feathers from the head and neck are lost first, then through the body and finally the tale.

Don’t be concerned if your birds are moulting, it’s perfectly normal. Expect to see it happen with each bird, and expect your egg production to suffer accordingly, that’s normal too.

Tagged with: chickens • keeping chickens • keeping chooks • moulting

Filed under: Just Chook Stuff

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