Just started moulting - not very happy hen

[Sue]

Do hens sometimes get depressed and look a bit off colour when they start to moult? My top hen has just been treated with Tylan as she was sneezing and wheezy again. This improved a lot after treatment, but she has now started dropping her feathers. She is standing around on her own away from the others and not joining in as she usually does. She's also stopped laying. She is usually the best layer. She has food in her crop at night, but it's not full. She's 2 years old - French Blue Marans. When she moulted last year she lost so many feathers that she looked very strange, but didn't behave the way she is now. There are no physical signs of anything being wrong.

 

[VALBURNHAM]

I hope someone can answer this for you as I have a girl very much the same and I must admit to be worried about her. Pale comb, feathers dropping everywhere but she just does not want to mix with the others. Crop has a little in on a night but not lots just so much like your girl.

 

[Chuck]

Pale & shrunken comb, stopped laying, staying on the outside all appear in birds in a heavy moult. The new feathers are very vunerable to feather pecking and to damage, which is probably why some keep apart. They should not be handled at this stage either to avoid feather damage. They vary a lot in the way the moult affects them though. Some just sail through it but the common feature is that they stop laying. It's one of the things left over from the wild and in a natural state, they would rear one or two batches of chicks before stopping laying with the onset of the moult which all birds do in the autumn. Also they feel vunerable when wing primary and secondary feathers are missing as they have no means of escape. They just need a normal diet and time.

 

[Sue]

Thanks Chuck. I did think this was what it must be, but just wanted someone more experienced to confirm it, so I didn't need to worry about her. Last moult she behaved normally and although she went almost completely bald, her behaviour didn't change at all. She stopped laying of course.

 

[karminski]

agree with what chuck says , pretty much all mine are moulting and some are going moody others are getting a bit agressive not sure if thats though the stress of the moult or not , my maran always goes down hill and it worries me one i have the other section of the run built then i will have 2 smaller inclosures where those going though a big moult can be kept away from the others so they can moult in peace but it wont be built for a few months .

 

[ncotb]

Totally normal as Chuck says.