Kitchen Garden Forum

Over the last few months one of my chickens has lost feathers on both her wings. She does not seem to be pecked or troubled with mites.She is quite lively,laying and eating well. Why should she continue to be featherless on her wings, particularly now that the cold weather is due?. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Moulting? One of mine lost a load last week and looks like nothing on earth now. If she's moulting, she'll get them back in a month or so.

Thanks Jane, nature does seem a little odd at times. I am breaking the ice on the water container and my chook is running around semi-naked !

Definitely moulting. I've had a couple of oven ready's too . Add a little more protein to their feed.

One of my hens always dropped her feathers in November, usually coinciding with the first bad frosts. She would look a bit tatty for a few days and then drop almost all her feathers over night and, like you say, look like an oven ready chicken in need of a little woolly jumper.

I usually give mine a bit of extra protein in the form of Butcher's Tripe dog food with their hen food (the type without poultry in it - so far as I can see from the ingredient list). This does seem to help them get new feathers reasonably quickly.

In order to promote feather- growth I have now introduced more protein to the chickens feed. Although my offering of freshly- dug big juicy worms has been rejected by one who need them the most...they are snatched by hens with a higher IQ.

Meal worms are a good supplement and possibly a little more palatable. We have Hens who love earth worms and Hens who don't look twice.

Mark.