Bald Chicken

[dawn]

Well almost bald. This is the first year mine have moulted properly and so far only one has which makes it look worse. My previously plump and fluffy black pekin now looks like a naked neck and seems to have shrunk to half her size. Her half naked state is clearly very attractive to Elvis the Rooster, as he won't leave her alone so she spends most of her time in the house hiding from him or the cold.

I didn't realise they could lose so many feathers, hopefully she'll get some new ones soon as the usual covering of feathers on the floor of the coop in the morning has stopped in the last few days.

I'm quite concerned about her though as she has no feathers at all on her neck and is generally very bedraggled, nothing to fluff up and keep her warm and we're forecast to have snow and freezing temperatures later this week.

 

[Lucylou]

Oh, I know how you feel. Last winter in all that snow one of mine decided to moult, she looked oven ready!! Poor thing obviously was finding it a bit chilly. I have an open shelter (its actually an old wooden desk with the drawers removed ) & she spent most of the time sheltering in it. I put some straw down inside it too & she seemed fine.

Mine are moulting now too, it looks like a feather factory inside the coup in the mornings :lol:

 

[karlooben]

you wouldnt think of any animal moulting at this time of year would you but plenty do aint mother nature weird :lol: :lol: my white leghorns are moulting for the first proper time this year and one looks so rough anyone would of thought i was being cruel to her she has no wings no tail or bum feathers an when you look at her you see more skin showing though what feathers she has left more and more each day but thankfully there are plenty of new feathers coming though as with my ex batts who are not really liking this cold to much they are near on blad but look like they have some good strong feather coming though bless them , i am now tempted to put straw in the houses but i get so paranoid about mites burrowing into the hollow strands of straw , its going to happen late this year but i will be building them a 3 sided shelter which will be placed so the rain wont go in it so then the girls will always have somewhere dry to hide in an feed in as i will place guttering all around the edges for thier feed i was offered a shed but it was way to big for my run and also the roof was knackered which would of made a brill shelter.

 

[victorias poultry]

Most of mine luckily have finished their malt, although the polish are just starting to loose their feathers :shock:

 

[podstable]

I keep any real baldies in a seperate run and coop.The real baldies do seem to get pecked at by the other girls and I worry that the cocks may injure them without the protection of feathers , I agree they do seem more attractive to the boYs like that! Ros