How long does molting last, and what should I do?
One morning in October the run looks like a pillow fight, one hen is half naked, and the nest boxes are empty. That is molt. It is normal, it happens every year, and the only two things you can get wrong are panicking and feeding the wrong thing.
What molt is
Once a year, a hen replaces every feather on her body. The trigger is the shortening days of late summer and autumn, which is why most molts start between August and November in the northern hemisphere. Her first autumn she usually skips it; the real molt starts in her second. Feathers are about 85 percent protein, and so is an egg, so the body picks one. Laying stops.
In Puerto Rico and the rest of the tropics, where day length barely changes, the molt still comes once a year but drifts around the calendar, often landing after the hottest weeks of late summer.
Hard molt, soft molt
| Hard molt | Soft molt | |
|---|---|---|
| What you see | Feathers everywhere at once; hen looks plucked | A few feathers a day; hen looks scruffy for months |
| How long | 6 to 8 weeks | 10 to 16 weeks |
| Eggs | Stop completely | Slow, then stop, then trickle |
| Which hens | Your best layers, usually | Older hens and poor layers |
Hard molters look worse and come back sooner. A hen that drops everything in a week is often done laying for less time than one who spends the whole autumn looking tired.
Molt or something else?
Feathers on the ground plus pin feathers coming in means molt. Feather loss on the back and the back of the neck with no new growth means a rooster or a bully. Bare patches around the vent with red, irritated skin means mites or lice; check at night with a flashlight. A bald chest in spring on a hen who sits all day is a broody plucking herself to warm the eggs. Molting hens look bad but act normal: eating, scratching, roosting. A hen who is also lethargic, hunched or off her food is sick, not molting.
What to feed
Protein. A laying feed is 16 percent protein, which is enough for eggs but tight for a full set of feathers. For the molt weeks, switch to an 18 to 20 percent feed: a grower, a flock raiser or a feather fixer feed, all of which are the same idea. If you would rather not change bags, add protein on top of the layer feed: dried mealworms, black oil sunflower seeds, a scrambled egg, a tin of sardines in water once a week. Cut the scratch and the bread, which are the opposite of what she needs.
She is not laying, so she needs less calcium, which is why a grower feed is fine. Leave oyster shell in a dish on the side for the hens who are still laying, and switch everyone back to layer feed when the eggs return.
What not to do
- Do not pick her up. Pin feathers have a blood supply and hurt. Handling a molting hen is like squeezing a bruise.
- Do not add a sweater. It traps the pin feathers and breaks them. She is cold for a few weeks; she will manage.
- Do not add light to force eggs. A lamp on a timer can push a hen back into lay before her feathers are in, which leaves her molting into winter. Let her finish.
- Do not introduce new birds. A pecking-order fight during molt is the one time flockmates draw blood from the quills and keep going.
- Do not worry about the count. Zero eggs for eight weeks from a hen who gave 250 last year is the deal. Her next laying year starts when the feathers are in.
When the eggs come back
One to three weeks after the last new feathers unfurl, usually in December or January in the north. The first eggs after a molt are often the biggest of her life, with the best shells, and a hen in her second laying year gives about 10 to 20 percent fewer than her first. Our page on how many eggs a chicken lays has the year-by-year numbers.
If the whole flock is the same age, they molt in the same window and the count goes from a dozen a week to nothing. Keepers who track eggs by month see the same dip every autumn, which is the point of tracking it: in year two, the empty nest box in October is a date on the calendar, not an emergency. It is also worth checking the other eight reasons hens stop laying if the timing or the feathers do not fit.
Common questions
How long does molting last in chickens?
Six to twelve weeks for most hens, once a year starting in their second autumn. A hard molt, where the hen drops most of her feathers at once, is over in six to eight weeks. A soft molt that trickles along can take three months or more.
Do chickens stop laying when they molt?
Almost all do. Feathers are about 85 percent protein and the hen cannot build those and eggs at the same time. Laying stops at or just before the first dropped feathers and comes back one to three weeks after the new feathers are fully in.
What should I feed molting chickens?
More protein, not more calcium. Switch to a 18 to 20 percent feed (a grower or an all-flock feed), or add a few mealworms, sunflower seeds or scrambled egg to the layer feed. Cut scratch and treats, which dilute protein. Oyster shell stays available on the side.
Is molting painful for chickens?
Growing feathers are: the new pin feathers have a blood supply and hurt when touched. Avoid picking up a molting hen, keep handling to a minimum, and watch for pecking from flockmates, who are drawn to the blood-filled quills.
Why is my chicken molting in spring or summer?
Usually stress or a change in light: a move, a predator scare, a sudden feed shortage, or a few days without water. Pullets also go through two juvenile molts before 18 weeks that are easy to mistake for the real thing. A summer molt is a hen responding to something; a fall molt is the calendar.
Do all chickens molt at the same time?
No. In a flock the same age, the best layers tend to molt last and fastest, and the weakest layers first and slowest. It is normal for one hen to be bald while the others look fine, and for the flock to take two months to cycle through.
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