Is this is normal?

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tygrysek75

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Hi,
1)my 12weeks old silver/grey dorking seems to loose lots of feathers-is this is some sort of molting?She is yung and her feathers only few weeks old.No parasite involvment.
2) I have found that they start laing eggs when aprox 30 weks old which will be in November.Is it possible that she will skip that and start her laing season next year when day will be longer as they tend to have a little brake in winter? :-)19
 
Your Dorking is going through a perfectly normal juvenile moult, shedding the feathers she grew as a chick and getting nice new ones which will carry her through until her next adult moult, probably in Autumn 2012. It does seem a waste, but it's a bit like kids getting their second teeth and shedding their baby ones. She may take several weeks to complete this moult, or may come through it quite fast. I have a pair of 17 week-old youngsters at the moment, and the Legbar hardly seemed to moult very much and finished in about 4 weeks, whereas the Sussex has been shedding feathers now for 7 weeks and still hasn't finished!
It's quite likely your pullet will start to lay before 30 weeks, any time from 22 weeks onwards is quite normal, and I'd have thought 30 weeks was rather late for a first egg, though still possible. So you could reasonably hope for eggs in October and from then on she should lay throughout the winter, no moult problems for her this year, though she will probably slow down in the dark days of December and January.
 
Thank you Marigold.Fingers crossed for an early egg now.
She is loosing them for a long time now but do not look bold anywere,so hopfully she will finish soon as her feathers very nice now.
 
they are a slow maturing breed so may be a few weeks yet. is her comb getting redder?
 
She's beautiful - what lovely markings.
I don't think 27 weeks is abnormally late for a purebred pullet to start laying, even when the daylight is longer than at the moment. With so many laying birds going out of lay in response to the darkening days and lengthening nights, I think you may have to resign yourself to quite a long wait before she comes up with the goods! If she doesn't start this year, at least she'll have the winter to develop slowly and surely, which will be better for her in the long run than the stresses of coming into lay and coping with the cold and darkness at the same time.
 
I agree with Marigold. She will be a far stronger hen for leaving off her laying until Spring as it takes a lot out of them laying in the Winter. They have to eat more to lay and keep warm and have less time to eat because of the very short days.
 
she looks like she should be laying! but as they are not prolific layers maybe she is just holding off until spring!
 
She looks very well and certainly looks to be maturing nicely and almost ready to lay. A lovely bird. I don't know much about Dorkings but suspect they are a slow maturing breed. She may decide to wait until spring to lay but in any event all you can do is sit back and wait. As they have become so rare, they may have lost a lot of laying power especially as they were never bred to be out and out layers.
 
Thank you everyone.I gues if she wont start this year(breader I got her from was telling me his line starts to lay when around 30 weeks old(so few more to go)she will start in the next year.This is OK with me and it is great that so many people responded to my question.I know this is a rare bread now but not realized that rare that nobody on the forum have any.Shame as is an old english one brought to England with Romans:) ;)
 
Dorkings are a lovely breed, I used to have a couple and would love a few more from a good line.

Yes they are slow maturing but you might find her laying this side of Christmas yet! :D
 
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