[cammi]

Ok I'm a newbie we got our first chickens about three weeks ago now.  

Heres the question is my Araucana in moult.  For the last few days I've noticed theres feathers in the run where for the first 2 weeks there weren't any at all.  After a bit of chicken watch, i know its Sally the Araucana.  In case it helps theres all types of feathers, little fluffy ones, normal plain ones and i'm sure i have found a clipped wing one.  She was apparently born (do you say hatched) April time.   She came from a freezing (i mean freezing my son was actually shaking with cold there) open field on a hill, and is now in a sheltered spot with other girls in the coop, reason i mention it is i didn't know if they lose feathers like animals lose fur with weather change.

She seems happy enough is eating etc.

Thanks

[orchardlady]

If your Araucana hatched last April it's unlikely she will moult until next Autumn. All chickens lose a few feathers hear and there. I'm not sure about the change of environment but I would think it unlikely. Keep and eye on her and you may be able to spot a problem but personally I think she will be fine. Try to keep any changes or stress to a minimum during these fist six weeks of settling in.

OL

[cammi]

She's the top lady, so isn't being picked on.

When we first got her, the hairdo on the top of her head looked a bit 'quilly' for want of a better way to describe it, but over the last few days that had really fluffed up.

[hillfooter]

She's the top lady, so isn't being picked on.

When we first got her, the hairdo on the top of her head looked a bit 'quilly' for want of a better way to describe it, but over the last few days that had really fluffed up.

Sounds very much like she's moulting.  Their necks & heads often look like they have light coloured spikey quills before they finally open out.  The other time you might see feathers is if she's broody when they pluck their breast feathers to expose warm skin to the eggs but this doesn't sound like that.

As OL says their first season moult can be very light to almost unnoticable but they can still moult.  If she's eating well on balanced compound feed like layers pellets then nutrition should be fine and if she's showing no signs of depression or other sickness symptoms I think this just about clinches it.

Best of luck
HF

[cammi]

If this is the case and she is moulting, quite heavily by the looks of things, does that mean she is older than we think??

One more pic

[Casey76]

OK, there are two situations to consider...

She is older than you thought and has going though her first moult

or

She is younger than you thought, and is only just getting her adult feathers!

young chickens will shed baby feathers three times before thier true adult feathers come through.

In spring though to september my pen looks lilke a pillow fllight because of all the shed feathers!

[D]

I've got a young Aracauna hen as well. She is doing the same as yours although it doesn't sound quite as bad. You can see the quills growing on her crest. I got mine in July and she was 15 weeks old then.

[cammi]

I've got a young Aracauna hen as well. She is doing the same as yours although it doesn't sound quite as bad. You can see the quills growing on her crest. I got mine in July and she was 15 weeks old then.

D, get ready for it then lol.  When we got Sally it was only her crest that looked scruffy,  like i say this major moult only started this week came out of no where - to a newbie.  You've put our minds at yet a bit, as that would put your girl about the same age, really was beginning to think we'd been done. lol

Are you giving her anything extra to help?

[D]

I didn't give any extra supplements or anything altough some people do. It's a natural process which the birds can and have been coping with for more or less as long as there existance. My lot moulted before the snow came so managed to escape that. Having said that I have one that moulted but started to lay again before she fully regrew her feathers so she's got a bold patch on her neck

[cammi]

oh bless her, didn't realise that would happen if they laid early, theres more to these girls than meets the eye lol

[alisonwo]

Most of mine have gone through the moult during this winter, poor scraggly looking things, but I tend to give them vitamins all the time, poultry spice on their food just a bit, with seaweed, dried garlic and cod liver mixed in as well, they flew through their moult with no probs. alison