Got Molt?

Iago: "Look at this. I'm so ticked off that I'm molting." (Aladdin, 1992)

My hens do not seem to be as annoyed as Iago but they certainly are molting.  Chickens here on Gael Glen Farm usually replace their feathers in the spring and fall.  The molting process involves them shedding a large number of their feathers, especially from their tails and bums, and then growing new ones.  During the in-between stages of the molt, the hens look quite sickly and pathetic.  Many of them have bald patches on their backs and bottoms and the chicken run and coop look like they have had a huge pillow fight - every night!  Hens also stop laying during a molt; they redirect their energy from egg producing to feather growing.

Bum bald spot

This hen's tail feathers are falling out and the feathers
she still has are looking pretty scraggly.

A chicken's new feathers sprout from follicles in the skin, somewhat like human hair.  But whereas hair keeps growing almost indefinitely, feathers grow until they are fully formed, then stop.  In birds with stripey patterned feathers (like our Cuckoo Marans), the alternating bands of lightly pigmented and heavily pigmented feather material are laid down while each feather is growing.

New feathers emerge looking like quills but eventually puff out to resemble normal feathers.  

New hair quills are growing on this hen's back.

The feather growing process usually takes two to four weeks. Once a feather is grown, the blood supply to the follicle cuts off and the feather maintains its form until the next molting cycle.  Sometimes a new feather is broken by another bird before it is fully formed and when this happens the would-be feather bleeds profusely.  

Hen with a broken, bloody feather on its bum.

The bottom part of a feather is made up of downy barbs for thermal insulation.  The vanes (tips) of feathers are for flight.  Each vane is made up of barns and extending from the barbs are a series of short branchlets called barbules. Tiny hooklets tie the barbules, and ultimately the barbs, together - kind of like avian velcro!  This complex arrangement creates the strong but light structure of the feather. 

You can see the two parts of the feather well in this photo -
the bottom for insulation and the top for flight.

I wonder if our chickens are in competition for who can grow the nicest tail? If so, this hen is winning so far. She clearly seems to be the one to beat!

Hen with a beautiful tail.