Molting Matters: How to Support Your Flock Through the Molt with Nutrition & Care

Wondering why your chickens look half-naked and stopped laying? In this Poultry Nerds Q&A episode, we answer the top 20 questions about molting in poultry—what it is, when it happens, how to support birds with proper nutrition, and the best housing tips to reduce stress. Whether you're raising layers, show birds, or backyard chickens, you'll learn how to help your flock thrive during this natural but stressful season. We’ll talk molting rations, protein needs, lighting, housing, and common molt mistakes—so your birds bounce back with healthy new feathers and strong immune systems.

• Transcript

  Carey: 0:26

  Welcome back friends. And today we have, we're gonna do a little something different. Today is just gonna be me recording. I have been asked to write a article for a magazine about molting. And in my own observations with my flock, I have noticed that we are about to start the process. So I felt like molting was something that we really should discuss and talk about. So I did a lot of research. I looked on the web, found lots of questions that folks had. Had, and they, some were getting some right answers and some were getting the wrong answers. So what I thought about doing is just put together this podcast and this video for you two.'cause it will be on both. And that way we're gonna discuss malting and we're gonna talk about some of the stuff. And we're gonna give you the answers as. The experience and the knowledge and the studying and everything else that I've done over the last several years researching this stuff. We're gonna put that information out there to try to help y'all out and see what can happen. So with that, let's dive into it. I have got a list of questions. The first question is that I saw, what is molting and why does it happen? Molting is a natural process that mature birds will go through where they obviously shed their old feathers and they grow new ones. One of the all, another one of the things that is important to know is during this process, they're also losing weight. They should lose weight during the molt. You want your birds to get to what the standard says it is for that bird, whether it's a Rhode Island red, whether it is a McLean, a hatch, a quail, whatever the bird is, even your turkeys. Which when you got a bunch of turkeys and they molt. It happens really quickly. I will say it looks like something got destroyed in their pen in the run, but it is a natural process and you want them to lose that weight and you want them to shed those feathers because what that does is it helps reset the reproductive system and get them to their optimum weight. Part of the reason they have that optimum weight is for fertility and for the birds that have a lot of feathers and they're larger birds, it allows things to get where it needs to be better for them to mt and for them to have higher fertility rates. And also when you do the malt properly. It allows for better feather quality. Let's say, you tuned into us a few months back or whatever and you started feeding your birds better'cause you didn't realize it was that big of a deal. The molt is your chance to make that happen and see the results when you do, when you follow through with what you learn here and what we'll do with the malt when you go through that. You'll get to a point where you see the the results of your hard work and your investment in better feed types limiting their amounts and, doing everything right. You'll get to see the product of that, if you will. So it's very, it's essential for also for it to happen June July. That way when it gets to be cold, starts cooling down. They have their down feathers, they have their bigger feathers, their primaries, and all that good stuff, and they're fully feathered. They look beautiful, and it is time for them to be warm. When you have a molt in June or July, it's really hot, so it helps keep the bird's body temperature down as well. So another question that I see a lot is at what age do chip chickens typically get their first molt? And again, it's not just chickens it's, we're turkeys, pretty much any kind of poultry out there. And it really depends on when they hatched out. It could be a year and a half. Sometimes if they're very stressed out, juvenile birds will have a chick molt too, but not. Not very common. When they first catch out, they get their, the chicks will get their down feathers, and then those will go away after a couple weeks, and then they'll get their real feathers as I call'em. Some people could consider that a molt, but typically you're not gonna see a molt in the summertime from a bird unless it is an older bird. So let's say it's a August, September, October hatch. Come June, July you may see a molt. So how long does a molting process usually last? Again, that's gonna depend heavily on what you're feeding the bird and how you as a poultry manager manage your flock. Because if you manage your clock properly and you manage the molt, which is even more key, you could be three weeks to a month, even two weeks if you do it right. If not, and you just do things naturally and your bird's free range and you put a little feed out for'em to get that extra that they're missing from the bugs and all that stuff that they're eating. You may be looking at a six to 12 week process. It also depends on the bird's, age, health, genetics, some bolt, some birds will mt faster, some will take it slow. Again, there's gonna be variables with everybody's birds. Because my Rhode Island reds can molt in about three weeks, and literally their new feathers will be pushing their old feathers out. Doesn't mean that yours will do that. And recently I was out in my chicken yard and I was taking some pictures because I was starting to see some feathers on the ground. I was like, Ooh, if I'm gonna gimme some new pictures, updated pictures, good pictures right now is the key'cause these things are fixing to get naked. So with mine doing it that fast, yours may take longer. You may have a different variety. Mine are standard Rhode Island Reds. You may have some more production Rhode Island Reds and it'll be different with them too. There's another question that I see is what are the different types of molt? You have a juvenile molt, which is when the chick's downs are placed by their feathers, and sometimes you'll have a partial molt, which may be in the springtime or due to excessive stress. If you've got predator problems or if you make a huge change in feed or water or something along those lines, cause those birds to stress out, they may drop some feathers. I will say that when it's. Around Thanksgiving and you're getting ready to process turkeys. A Turkey would go through a partial mo real fast because when you stretch their neck out and get ready to fastly, swiftly, whatever you wanna call it start that whole process of getting your Thanksgiving or Christmas bird, they're gonna actually molt really quick. It's very stressful for them, and a lot of times you can pull most of the feathers out and not even need to use a pluck. A hard molt is gonna be a rapid feather loss and fast regrowth that typically happens when your birds are getting a more nutritious diet. The molt is managed by a responsible chicken tender. Somebody that knows what the re what. What ways and how to support them. Doing a quick molt and a soft mot is a gradual feather loss that, like you may, your birds may lose feathers over a month or so, and then they may take another month or so to gain'em back like we talked about earlier, that six to 12 week. So you got a juvenile molt, you've got a partial molt, you got a hard molt and a soft molt. Another question that I've seen quite a bit is, can you force or induce a mo a molt and should you, of course you can, force molting is typically a diet restriction or lighting changes, anything like that. That's done. A lot of times by commercial systems, it's also done by your more experienced poultry keepers or chicken tenders. It, there's a lot of people that are starting to learn more about feed management and that type stuff. There are some that say it's not recommended for a backyard flock because it's stressful. And there's others that say. While it may stress the birds out, if you do it temporarily and take good care of'em and manage'em, it actually better sets them up for next year. And it also makes for a better show season'cause they'll have. Those, they'll have those feathers that are shiny because you've been looking at your feet and observing the methionine levels and maybe you've been putting a supplement in it that has some cystine and stuff like that to really make those colors vibrant and to make the feathers healthy. I will say that show Pro Farm Supply. Has come out with a molting ration. It is. I have not seen any other company with a molt ration, but I do know that they have one. With that molt ration, I do know that it's properly managed and created by a poultry dietician or nutritionist. He doesn't the guy that did it doesn't like either one of those terms. He's just a guy trying to help people out. When you're trying to manage the molt, ideally you're going to drop your crude protein down to 11 point a half, 12% tops. You're gonna drop the fat down to two and a half. To, you need to keep it under 3% because again, you're wanting the birds to lose that excess weight as well. But they do need some fat to, to survive and live. So you know, you need to drop it down to two point half to 2.9%. Keep it under three for sure. The fiber this time of the year, normally we want our fiber and our fat to be proportional, but. During the mold, we're looking for a 8.5 to 9% on our fiber. We want it to be high with your, he especially that are layers. You're just gonna lower the calcium down to about two point a half percent, somewhere in that range, because during the mold, they're not gonna be laying nearly as much if at all. But we also want. To keep giving them some extra calcium because it helps build up the extra to get it to where when they go to Laying again, they've got more than enough to do it. All right? We want our vitamin A levels to be like 13,000 IUs per pound, which is very high. Vitamin A is very key in helping them recover and helping them through the process and replacing a lot of stuff. We want the vitamin D to be 3000 international units per pound which is a lot. Vitamin D, we'll keep that to around 3000 as well. The vitamin E. We're gonna put that 115 international units, one 10 to one 20. Anything in that range is gonna be good for your vitamin E, which is a lot more than what's normal. But again, we're wanting to make sure they have the vitamins and stuff that they need to be healthy. We're just lowering, we're mainly lowering the protein. Giving them a lot of other stuff. We are gonna lower the lysine amino acid down to 0.45, 0.49, somewhere in there, which is a lot lower. Normally you'll want 1.2, 1.3 in a mature bird formula, but we're dropping that really low. Now the methionine, we're gonna drop it down to 0.3, 0.35, somewhere in that neighborhood, which again, is really low. But methionine is what supports the feathers and we want them to get rid of them. So we're gonna cut that out. We're gonna get it low. So another question we see is, should I change my fox feed during the molt? And yes, you should. We just went over that to that, that's, those two questions to me went hand in hand, so we went through it. Another one is, what nutrient is most critical during bulk protein or something else? Number one, protein is never the most important thing. The vitamins, minerals, and amino acids are. But the quantity of amino acids like methionine, lysine, we want to alter that during the malt. And another question, how much protein should birds get during the malt? We've already covered that. Ums. Some people will feed a high protein thinking, okay, they need it. Really and truly, you want the lower protein for those two, three, maybe four weeks, however long it takes. If your birds are obese, you're gonna want less. You're gonna want to put'em on a strict diet, essentially, to get them down to that standard weight. Alright, so that's why the other amounts is what's recommended. So we're gonna do that. Specific vitamins and minerals that help. Yes. Zinc, biotin, and vitamin A. All that stuff. Will prevent brittle feathers. It supports feather growth, the vitamin A aids in skin and follicle health, which hey, we're fixing to be shooting out some fresh feathers. So skin and follicle health's gonna be huge. That's why that number is really high in that ration. Vitamin E also boost immunity because you know when the birds are stressing out,'cause their diet just changed and everything else'cause they're. We're wanting to do a fast, hard molt, vitamin E to boost their immunity is key.'cause you don't want them to get sick. Should I give layer feed if they're not laying eggs during the molt? No, you shouldn't do that. If you're not going to swap to a specific molt ration, you still need to swap to a lower calcium level feed when they're not laying. Because it, it taxes the kidneys. If they have the excess and they don't need it, they're not using it. That's why even for the molt layer ration, we're dropping the amount of calcium by about a full point for that specific reason. Or their feed additives are natural supplements that help with molting. Of course, there is Omega-3 oils, kelp meal. B complex vitamins, garlic, apple cider vinegar, all of those support immune health and feather health. So that now's the time do to do that. There, there's a couple of'em out there. One that I'm particular of is the show Pro poultry supplement for obvious reasons. The other brand that I recommend is for Trail. For Trail, has a show breeder supplement that like the show Pro is, I'm gonna say predominantly organic because you cannot add lysine to anything and it be considered organic, but. I'll say predominantly organic. They both are, and I will say that the stuff that is used to go in it is sustainable and like even the fish mill is humanely harvested. I've seen the manufacturing facility where they grow the fish and process it, it's all done really humanely. I'm sure there's others out there. Those are just the ones that I personally am the most fond of. I like, I see a lot of other questions about housing and environment, like what kind of living conditions support a healthy malt. People. This time it is more important than ever for clean, dry, low stress environments. Avoid overcrowding by this time of the year. All the birds that you hatched out, you should have already made your decision on who you're gonna keep to breed forward and improve your strain or improve your line of whatever birds you have, and you should have already used some means of choline. So avoid overcrowding. By cuing, a lot of people thinks, oh you're killing them all. You're killing'em all. No. For me, cuing can be giving that bird to somebody that wants eggs. If I have hens that don't meet my standards I know quite a few people that need the food. They like feeding the animals. So I'll give'em a few hens every year, help feed their family. I'll also give'em some roosters to help feed their families as well. So whatever way you do, you're calling number one. I always like to encourage people to be humane and, but the all that should have been done by now, so definitely overcrowding should not be an issue. Maintain good airflow. In my breeding pins, especially, I have a 12 inch fan that is mounted up in the ceiling, which is pretty key because that way it don't get rained on, but it's mounted, just a couple inches below the ceiling of the pens and it flows. I have it on the same cycle as. The lights, that, that allows me to just run one line because my, I have a large heavy current capacity type timer because I do have lights and I do have fans on it, so I'll have the fans running when the lights are that way. In the areas where I don't have a lot of wind flow, there's still good air flow now in the wintertime. I will unplug those fans'cause they don't need extra wind when they're cold. So yeah, do that. You want to protect'em from unnecessary drafts, which again, we're managing the mold, we're doing it June, July. So I would say that more if you're not managing the mold. Or maybe induce in your molt and it doesn't happen till the colder months that you would want to do that and avoid the drafts.'cause they're, your birds are gonna be naked and you don't want them to, you don't want'em to get too cold. Another question, and I don't understand this. Should I separate molting birds to reduce or reduce stress? You should definitely separate if there's some type of stressor, like if you have one bird that you know because one of your hen started molting sooner than everybody else, and you've got one being a bully, get that bird out. Put it in a drop pen. Let it live by itself for a little while and. See if it doesn't change its mind. But aside from that, just make sure you're not overcrowding and to reduce the stress. Make sure you don't have any kind of predators lurking around at night. Try to avoid loud noises that aren't normal. Sudden changes, overcrowding, that kind of stuff. Try to avoid those because molting is a stressful time and you don't need to add to it. Can light affect light exposure affect molting? Yes. Decreasing daylight triggers a molt. So like for me I do, I use lights on my outside brew pens specifically for normality. Because you know as well as I do the exact time, the sun comes up, varies every day, and the exact time it goes down varies every day. So by using lights that are not too bright and they're the right color, you give them normalcy, which reduces stress. With that. What I do when I'm starting my MT process, I cut the lights, I leave the fans, I cut the lights. So definitely, should you reduce or change lighting during the mt? Yes. So for me, I cut'em off. You're gonna let, number one, cutting the, cutting that off. No more means that they don't get a full 14 hour, 16 hour day. Let's say you have an overcast day, like what we're experiencing the day I'm recording this, and they may only get eight to 10 hours. That's okay. Having a lot of light does slow down that molting process. Another question I see is why do some birds look awful during the molt and others don't? Some birds go through a hard molt and look ragged while others do it slowly. So again, if you manage it, then you know the nutrition side of it you're managing, and that plays a big role in how obvious or harsh the mold appears. Genetics. That all starts with selection right after hatch. And so you know, you're, the birds that you have, whether they're in a backyard or whether you're a show person, those genetics are those genetics. And there's certain things you want to call for and look out for, and certain things you may not. Is it normal for birds to stop laying completely during molt? Absolutely. Most birds will stop laying during the molt because the nutrients are redirected to feather production as normal and unexpected. I will say this too, if you have a egg pop out of one of your hands, deer in the molt, don't be shocked because it does happen. Should I still be showing or transporting birds that are molting? Absolutely not. Birds in molt are stressed and vulnerable to illness. Wait until they've regrown all their feathers and looking good and ready for transport, because again, that's. The benefit of managing the molt this time of year. By the time show season gets here, they've regrown all their feathers, their nutrition is good.'cause you're seeing the results of that better quality feed that you've been feeding'em. And the birds are, their chances of getting sick are gonna be very small just because their nutrition's on point. While birds are in the molt, everybody knows that birds are more subject objectable to getting sick when they're stressed out, which is why we talk about so much, about keeping everything normal, keeping their pens clean, all that good stuff, keep it regular. And the last question that I've seen a lot of is. Can molting reveal underlying health issues or nutrient deficiencies? Absolutely. Birds with an uneven molt, bald patches or prolonged molted, maybe dealing with some type of parasites, a poor diet or liver conditions. So with that, I will say. We talked about the rough molt and doing a hard molt, but if your birds do a hard molt and you're not being a chicken tender and managing it, then I would check to see if there's some other kind of issue, because you could have a potential problem if you take away one thing from this episode. Remember, molting is natural. How your birds come through the mold heavily depends on you. The poultry keeper, the chicken tender, the poultry nerd, whatever you call yourself, it's all on you because you're the one that is responsible for their nutrition. Their care. A well fed, housed bird will bounce back with feathers that shine and health that holds true. And with that, tell y'all to have a good day. I hope you enjoyed the podcast. Be sure to give us a like and a follow and we will see you in the comment sections.