Chicken Enthusiasts Share KNOWLEDGE

Manage Your Flock’s Feather Loss

By Kristi Cook

When there’s a rapid loss of feathers among your flock, don’t assume your naked ladies and gents are simply replacing worn out plumage. Do a thorough flock check to rule out other causes and manage the situation as needed.

Causes of Feather Loss

MOLT

The most common cause of feather loss is the annual molt. Fall’s reduced daylight hours and lower-intensity sunlight triggers the loss of old feathers and growth of new ones. Beginning at the head and working its way down, natural molting often makes chickens look as though they had a run-in with a blind barber while others merely experience minor balding.

However, stress from disease, lack of water/feed, getting chilled, or a sudden removal of coop lighting can cause abnormal molting. This stress-induced feather loss may not follow the head to toe sequence of annual molting and often results in a slower or nonexistent development of new feathers. This type of molting leaves chickens especially prone to injury or death as the mercury drops, making immediate removal of these stressors necessary.

CANNIBALISM

Many flock owners misdiagnose naked or patchy chickens as being in molt. However, close inspection of the flock’s daily activities often reveals a mild, but not harmless, form of cannibalism known as feather picking. Victims usually have bare patches, which at times may be severe, out of sequence with molting with little to no pinfeathers present.

Feather picking is usually caused by bored, confined, or crowded chickens—and the occasional bully—that