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Moulting - Chickens
After keeping chickens for a few years at some point your chickens will start to go through what they call a 'hard moult'. Usually the first year in a chickens life they don't molt at all or they go through a very light moult where they don't replace all of their feathers. And the second year you will usually see a light moult, but in the third year and after it's time for the hard moult. You'll know it's the hard moult for sure when they lose their tail feathers. During a light molt the birds will keep their tail feathers.

To the left is a photo of one of my oldest chickens, about three or four years old going through a really hard moult. To the novice chicken keeper it would look as if the chicken has some sort of disease but not to worry, your chicken will fully recover! All bird go through the molt to some degree or another. To keep your chickens from experiencing a hard molt simply butcher all of your chickens every year or two, or if you don't have the heart for it, give them away and buy new chicks. This isn't really a bad thing because the egg laying ability of chickens rapidly decreases after the first couple years anyway.

AMAZING CHICKEN FACTS:

  • All chickens can be genetically traced to the Red Jungle Fowl.
  • It takes a hen about 24 hours to lay a egg.
  • In the United States chickens produce around eighty millions eggs a year.
  • It takes 21 days for a chick to hatch.



"So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good!"
Genesis 1:21



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Site Posted on May 25, 2009
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