[carolbriar]

Our Light Sussex has been moulting and all her new feathers are a creamy colour and definately not white any more.  She is approximately 1 1/2 years old and this is her first moult - not a full one just a partial moult.  She has never laid an egg - I just assume she is barren.  She seems fine - eating, drinking etc.  Can anyone shed some light on why this has happened?

[joyfull]

sorry can't help there as I have never had light sussex, the white hens I have are araucanas and they have stayed pure white (except around their face where they get very mucky digging into the ground    ).

[carolbriar]

Thanks Joyful, its bizarre the way they have changed.  Its the new feathers that have come through this cream colour.  She was very white before.  Anyone else any thoughts please?

[Springlands]

Hi Carol - our two hens are just over three years old now and stopped laying in the summer. They still moult and from being a deep reddy brown they are now a light brown - I think that it might be an age thing.

[carolbriar]

Thanks for that springlands.  I will just have to accept that I now own a cream coloured light sussex

[Liv]

Hey I had a beautiful light sussex called Izzy and the exact thing happened to her! After her first moult she grew apricoty creamy coloured feathers on her back.. I think it's the ladies' individuality coming through 

[carolbriar]

Thanks Liv, perhaps she will change her colour each year depending on what's in fashion

[gibbo]

I think white feathered chickens can turn a creamy yellow colour when they are exposed to lots of sunlight.  Also greenstuffs and corn that contain high levels of chlorophyll can give a brassy appearence.  I think i remember reading about a food that has been developed with this in mind for those people who like to show their birds and want them as white as can be!

[evie2]

Our Light Sussex, Star hatched in spring, had her first moult recently, oven ready wasn't the word for it but all her feathers have come back snowy white, maybe it's the chicken version of grey hairs

[NormandyMary]

I always thought my Sussex girlies had lovely white feathers, until I saw them wading round in the crisp white snow. If they were pairs of knickers, Id be getting the Vanish out, they looked decidedly grubby!