[VeggieVirgin]

One of my Black Rocks just came out of a broody cycle a couple of weeks ago, and is now moulting, but she seems to be losing her feathers at a heck of a rate, and has bald patches on her chest and shoulder - in fact, practically her entire chest is bald. I've never seen a moulting chicken with bald patches before: they've always just gone through a "dragged through a hedge backwards" stage. She's still active: hanging around with the rest of the gang, eating and drinking.

Is this rapid moult anything to worry about?

I'm currently treating a red mite infestation in the coop, and I'm finding mites on some of the shed feathers inside the coop. The birds have all been dusted with diatom.

[grumpydad]

spray the coop with poultry shield, there are lots of threads on the site about how to deal with red mite.

we have a wyandotte in the same position, been broody now moulting, lost most of her feathers and now starting to put new ones through, she is having a bit of fish cat food to increase her protein intake as she makes her new feathers

[Kathie]

Our ex batts decided to go for almost a full moult last December brrr, we tried cat food but the dogs ate it,  in the end we gave them kitten biscuits and it seemed to help a lot
Good luck

[VeggieVirgin]

spray the coop with poultry shield, there are lots of threads on the site about how to deal with red mite.

Yeah, I'm on top of the red mite problem (fingers crossed) - I used Total Kill spray, plus the diatom powder, and I fumigated the coop and soaked the perches in Jeyes Fluid - there are only a few mites in the coop now (I need to do the second stage of the fumigation later in the week).

[darkbrowneggs]

Hi - Broody hens normally remove the feathers from their breast area in order to incubate their eggs successfully, so I expect that is what has happened.  Also a hen which has gone broody at this time of year will normally go into a full moult ready for her winter feathers.  I wouldn't worry, but you could give her a little extra protein rich food if you are really worried about her, which should help her to regrow her feathers quickly

All the best
Sue

[VeggieVirgin]

Hi - Broody hens normally remove the feathers from their breast area in order to incubate their eggs successfully, so I expect that is what has happened.  Also a hen which has gone broody at this time of year will normally go into a full moult ready for her winter feathers.  I wouldn't worry, but you could give her a little extra protein rich food if you are really worried about her, which should help her to regrow her feathers quickly

Thanks for the advice. I got her out the coop last night to have a good look at her, and she nearly beat me to death with her wings, so she obviously isn't feeling poorly!