# Molting in the summer?



## RollingAcres (Aug 7, 2017)

My Rhode Island Red hen hasn't been laying any eggs lately and about 2 weeks ago when I went to open the door to the chicken coop, I saw her feathers all over the floor. I know that chicken molts in the fall but could molting occur in the summer?


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## babsbag (Aug 7, 2017)

I find that most of mine molt late summer.  My feed store told me to up their protein level in the feed during molt and they should get through it faster and keep laying. I tried it and it worked for some.


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## RollingAcres (Aug 7, 2017)

OK I'll have to look for some at the feed store. What kind did you use @babsbag ?
And are you chickens free range? Mine are mostly free range.


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## babsbag (Aug 7, 2017)

yes, they are free range. I used a game bird feed, whatever brand happened to be at the store I was at so it varied.  I go to a lot of feed stores.


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## RollingAcres (Aug 8, 2017)

That's what I normally give them as well, game bird feed. I normally mix mealworms in their feed as well. Also depending on what I have leftover in fruits or veggies, I would cut them up and throw out to the hens.
I did find a link about what other protein source that can be given to the hens (never would have thought of cooked eggs!)
http://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2016/09/10-healthy-sources-of-added-protein-for.html


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## farmerjan (Aug 8, 2017)

Technically a hen should not be laying while she is moulting.  It is her bodies time to do a transformation and to shed all the old feathers and to totally refresh herself.  The protein level needs to be a bit higher so that the feathers will grow.  Feathers are nearly all protein.  Ever see any feed labels that have "feather meal" in it?  Feather meal is just a nice way to say ground up feathers that supply the lions share of protein in the feed.  
Years ago I worked on a small commercial laying farm, ran about 3000 layers and he sold strictly Grade AA eggs.  The grade has to do with the freshness as evidenced by the size of the air cell in the egg.  As in no discernable air cell means  "laid today fresh" . We shipped eggs out every other day, to mostly smaller neighborhood stores in some more ethnic neighborhoods where there were many people who were only one step away from being on the farm and knew what good fresh eggs were.

  Anyway, we hatched all our own replacement chicks for pullets and he had a "sexer" come in to do the vent sexing of the chicks as day olds.
We candled the eggs at 1 week and then at 2 1/2 weeks before they were moved to the hatching trays. We took all the blank eggs from the first candling, at a week, and hard boiled them and kept them to feed the newly hatched chicks for the first 24-48 hours.   I do know that we did not  hard boil any that had started to develop as they were "rotten".    So yes, the high protein in the eggs will help.  There is a down side to that.  Many hens will develop an egg eating problem, even after being fed them as hard boiled.  Doesn't seem to cause the same problem in chicks, but once a hen starts to lay, they seem to instinctively know that the egg is good to eat.  
Sure, many do not, but once there is an egg eater, they need to go in the pot. 

Most moulting takes from 4 to 10 weeks.  Hens are different.  And all ours do the largest amount of moulting  in the later summer, say July through early Sept.  Nature dictates that they should have their feathers back and their bodies getting ready for the colder winter weather.  Not all do it according to schedule.  That is why many commercial farms that keep their hens for 2 years and usually have at least 2 houses, will do a force moult in say July or Aug when their second house has new pullets that have started to lay, and get the hens all moulted out and back into laying before the colder shorter days.  By then they are already into a laying cycle and it is easier to keep them laying than to try to get them to start laying with the short days even with the addition of lights to stimulate the laying cycle. So they are moulted in July, feathered in and back to laying by the first of Oct and then will continue to lay well as lights are put on them to keep the daylight up to a minimum of 12-14 hours.


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