When are chickens supposed to molt?

[Chickengirl209]

When are chickens supposed to molt?
I have only one with a small patch of feathers missing at her neck. Thats 1/19 hens. Everyone elses chickens seems to be molting. Any ideas why mine aren't? They are around 30/40 wks old.

 

[sourland]

Frequently first season pullets skip the autumn molt. I would guess that 'everyone elses chickens' are older birds.

 

[CrspyChkn]

Sometimes hens won’t look like they are molting, and you won’t be able to tell, often there will be lots of feathers lying around. Have they started laying eggs yet? If so, are they still laying? When they molt they will stop laying eggs for a period of time(so to get the most eggs possible some are bred to molt quickly). I believe there is also a “bleaching sequence” that occurs during a molt that tells you at what stage the molt is in. I will get back to you about that if I find any more information on that later. Overall, based off of the information given, as long as they are acting healthy it should not be a problem. To answer your question more directly, they tend to molt at the end of fall and the end of winter. They can also molt due to stress. Younger chickens also tend to skip their autumn molt, so I would assume that the “other chickens” are older.

 

[CrspyChkn]

Oh, I said the same thing as sourland at the end of that.

 

[Chickengirl209]

Frequently first season pullets skip the autumn molt. I would guess that 'everyone elses chickens' are older birds.

Thanks!