If you’ve had chickens for any length of time, you know they shed feathers. The occasional feather dropped around the yard is normal, with heavier feather loss occurring during the fall molt.
Most flocks recover from molting without a hitch. But there are those who appear to refuse to regrow their feathers. Additionally, other things can keep them from completing this all-important task before winter, such as mites and cannibalism.
These naked chickens find themselves in a heap of trouble when cool fall days and nights suddenly turn cold and dreary with the onset of winter.
Keeping these unfeathered fowl warm throughout winter can be challenging at best. However, it’s not impossible. With a little know-how as to the causes and solutions, you can aid them in their quest to keep warm.
Causes of Feather Loss
To ensure the rapid growth of new feathers, the flock owner must first determine the cause of feather loss. Here’s a rundown of the most common causes of feather loss.
Molt
The most common cause of feather loss is the annual molt. Fall’s reduced daylight hours and lower intensity sunlight triggers the loss of old feathers and growth of new ones.
Beginning at the head and working its way down, natural molting often makes chickens look as though they had a run-in with a blind barber, while others merely experience minor balding. If you gently pull the remaining feathers back, you’ll find a patch of pinfeathers pushing to the surface to cover bare spots, with complete replacement taking place within six to 16 weeks.
However, stress from disease, lack of water/feed (even for only a few hours), getting chilled or sudden removal of coop lighting can cause unseasonal or abnormal molting. This stress-induced feather loss may not follow the head-to-toe sequence of annual molting and often results in slower or nonexistent development of new feathers unless the stressor is removed.
The reduced speed of feather replacement, or the lack thereof, leaves chickens especially prone to injury or death as the mercury drops. It must be remedied as quickly as possible while incorporating significant measures to keep the flock warm.
Cannibalism
Many chicken caretakers, particularly newbies, misdiagnose naked or patchy chickens as being in molt. However, close inspection of the flock’s daily activities often reveals a mild, but not harmless, form of cannibalism known as feather picking.
Victims usually have bare patches, which at times may be severe, out of sequence with molting with little to no pinfeathers present. Should pinfeathers begin to push through, you’ll find they quickly disappear. Given enough time, chickens can lose so many feathers they are virtually ready for the oven.
Feather picking is usually caused by bored, confined or crowded chickens—and the occasional bully—that discover the hidden joys found in plucking another’s feathers. Others find themselves drawn to a flock mate’s feathers (or their own) in an effort to obtain much needed protein when the daily protein ration is insufficient.
Even mice and rats are attracted to protein rich feathers, nibbling the ends or entire feathers while chickens roost at night. Therefore, vigilant rodent removal, adequate space, a well-balanced protein-rich diet, foraging and bully removal are essential to avoid/correct cannibalism.
Love Bites
While technically not a form of cannibalism, let’s not forget the love embraces of a lively rooster. While most roos cause no harm to their harem during mating, some become overzealous and pluck or pull large quantities of a hen’s feathers.
Should the unlucky lady be his favorite, she’ll likely not only be wounded but bald in the head, neck or shoulder regions and need to be removed or saddled until feathers are replaced.
Parasites
Mite and lice infestations also result in feather picking as chickens seek relief from irritation and itchiness. While mites are often difficult to see, close inspection will reveal dark red, black or tan specks crawling around the vent area and/or along the body, particularly around feather shafts.
Some mites prefer to hide in the coop during the day, so a nighttime visit with a flashlight in hand to inspect the birds may be necessary. If you can’t make a coop visit at night, you may be able to see small specks of blood-filled mites crawling along the roost or hiding in nesting boxes during the day.
Lice, on the other hand, spend their entire lives on hosts and can be readily discovered by gently brushing feathers back and looking for tan or white lice crawling along the body. You’ll also see lice eggs, or nits, attached to the base of feathers.
Left untreated, infestations lead to significant feather loss and weakened, sickly and even dead birds. Approved treatments regularly change and depend on whether chickens are show birds, meat birds or layers. So a trip to your local veterinarian is your best option when selecting insecticides.
Read more: When chickens molt, you should expect feathers to fly.
Promote Feather Growth
Feathers consist of approximately 85 percent protein, so feather growth creates a protein deficit when molting chickens (or any chicken actively growing feathers) are fed the typical 16 percent protein layer ration. Most birds compensate for the higher protein demands by either reducing or completely halting egg production until plumage is completely regrown.
However, you can help your flock along by switching to an 18 percent protein feather grower feed for both hens and roosters over the age of 16 weeks. For many hens, this small increase is all that is needed to speed along feather growth while allowing better egg production throughout the process.
You can return to layer feed once the flock is feathered out.
In addition to switching to feather grower feed, don’t overlook allowing chickens to supplement their own diet, when possible, by foraging for worms, grubs and other protein-rich snacks. Offering mealworms, nonpoultry meat scraps, night crawlers, small amounts of cat food or other animal protein also works well.
Add Some Warmth
Once you’ve determined the cause for feather loss and made adjustments, your work really begins, as I quickly discovered with my first flock. My pullets decided feather picking was great fun just weeks before our winter turned unseasonably cold with record snow.
Not only did I have no idea what the cause was, I found myself scrambling to provide protection when the temperature suddenly dropped to 19 degrees F. So make plans ahead of time and acquire necessary materials to keep your naked chickens warm through winter.
Many of these birds may not be able to replace sufficient feathering until spring arrives.
Through Feed
To stay warm, chickens require more calories during cold weather than during warmer months. When significant portions of plumage are missing, their energy needs are even higher. To help them meet these needs, always allow free-choice food and heated water.
Supplement with a handful of scratch grain an hour or so before your flock goes to roost. The added heat created during digestion will help warm them during the night.
After my chickens go to roost, I like to throw several handfuls of scratch near their feed and water to get the warming effects of digestion going again as soon as they wake in the morning, as well.
However, only provide enough to get them moving and digesting food. You want them to eat primarily from their higher protein, feather-grower feed and forage for any available bugs or worms they can find, if possible.
Read more: Keep your chickens cozy this winter with these cold-weather tips!
Heat Lamps
Providing supplemental heat has always been, and will continue to be, a controversial subject among chicken owners. It’s my own opinion that, in the case of compromised birds such as these, supplemental heating is necessary, as they have almost no feathers with which to envelope heat around their bodies for protection.
However, to be used properly and safely, a few pointers need to be kept in mind.
- Purchase red-coated infrared lamps, as they tend to hide red, irritated skin. Chickens love to pick at red things.
- Select lamp fixtures with reflectors and wire guards to reduce the likelihood of fire should the fixture fall into a bed of litter.
- Attach fixture securely at two locations, approximately 2 feet above the roost. This way, should the lamp become dislodged, the second catch should keep the lamp from hitting the floor or a bird and starting a fire.
- Keep all wiring, including extension cords, out of the reach of pecking chickens.
- Keep a large, easily read thermometer inside the coop at all times. And learn how warm the coop gets depending on outside conditions to avoid overheating your birds.
- Don’t turn the light off and on at various times, which can cause further molting. Use a timer or leave on 24 hours at all times.
Deep-Litter Method
If you haven’t discovered the deep-litter method, you’re in for a treat. Not only does it create wonderful material for the compost/garden by spring, it also generates extra heat inside the coop as material decomposes.
In late summer, lay several inches of litter, such as pine shavings, across the coop floor including under the roost. As litter becomes packed and droppings build up, add a few more inches across the entire area. Keep fluffed with a pitchfork or throw a bit of scratch around and let the chickens’ pecking and scratching do the work for you.
Continue this process until you reach a foot or more by winter. Remove any litter that becomes soaked from leaks or entryways, and repair problem areas. Properly managed, there will be no ammonia odor/buildup or dustiness.
Read more: Click here to learn more about the deep-litter method!
Outside the Coop
Once you have the inside set up, focus attention outside. As with any coop design, you should have adequate ventilation along the upper edges of walls. However, close ventilation holes along the north side in cold weather while keeping southern-facing vent holes open except during extreme wind, blowing sleet, snow or ice.
All windows should remain closed in cold weather, although south-facing glass/Plexiglass windows should remain uncovered to allow solar heat to pass through panes into the coop.
While insulated coops used in conjunction with other methods may offer sufficient protection to roosting flocks, many coops are uninsulated and require at least temporary weather barriers. Run areas also need protective measures as flocks usually roam outside during the day despite bitterly cold conditions.
Adding insulation need not be expensive or pretty, just effective. Use what you have on hand whenever possible, as these measures are usually temporary.
Even after you get your flock safely through the winter with bright new feathers, continue to monitor daily activities closely. Chickens with a taste for feathers and coops with a history of parasites often attempt to return to their destructive ways, creating yet another vicious cycle of feather loss.
More Information
Insulation Ideas
An effective and inexpensive way to add insulation is with hay bales, plywood and tarps. To protect the coop, stack hay bales as high as possible along northern walls as a barrier against the cooling effects of wind, rain and sleet. To create a windbreak for the run, stack bales at least two high against the outside perimeter of fencing.
If your run is small, as with most chicken tractors, drape the run top to bottom with heavy tarps and anchor securely at ground level to protect against blowing wind and precipitation. However, don’t forget to provide a few inches of ventilation along the top of the southern fence wall to allow moist air and ammonia fumes to escape.
On cold-but-sunny days, pull the top of the tarp back to allow warm sunshine into the run. Don’t forget to close it back during inclement weather.
To keep the tarp from ripping away from anchor points during strong wind, secure plywood or stack hay bales along the fence perimeter 2 to 3 feet high against the tarp. This added protection also provides a stronger windbreak for birds, because wind won’t tunnel through the tarp as easily.
This article originally appeared in the November/December 2021 issue of Chickens magazine.
