The birds have The body is covered in feathers; each part of the body has the type of feathers best suited to its specific function. They protect and cover the body, help retain body heat, and enable flight, but they must be replaced; this process is known as molting.
Molting is a natural process in hens during which the birds shed their old feathers and grow new ones. During this period, hens shed their old feathers and grow new ones, which requires a significant amount of energy and results in a temporary decrease in the number of eggs they lay.
Our chickens and other birds have retained scales—which are modified feathers—as a remnant of their dinosaur ancestors; these scales are now found only on their metatarsals and toes, where they remain. The most distinctive feature of birds is their plumage.
It performs multiple functions, the most important of which is endothermy or homeothermy (which maintain their body temperature independently, regardless of the ambient temperature) and flight.
By observing the plumage of our hens, we can gather a wide range of information that we must take into account for their proper management—such as determining when molting begins, how long it lasts, and how it progresses—and noting the changes in the wing feathers as molting occurs.
Molting usually begins in late summer and continues mainly through the fall.
The fall and the birth of the pen will happen with a certain order, starting at the head and along the neck, chest, body, wings, and tail. Feather's new start to immediately leave that fall the old.
Depending on their structure and color, feathers exhibit varying degrees of resistance to wear and tear caused by environmental factors; naturally, to maintain their functionality, they must be replaced periodically; this process is called molting.
One of the main functions of molting is to replace worn-out feathers, but it also allows birds to adapt their appearance to different life stages—such as courtship and social hierarchy—which are vital to them and occur annually.
We can classify or divide bird molting into body molting and flight molting, which occur in different ways but are synchronized in terms of when feathers fall out and new ones grow in, so that there is no gap parts from the chicken's body, completely exposed.
The molting process in chickens takes place in different ways or phases; it all depends on the bird’s needs and age. They are forced to intersperse molting among the different phases of their annual biological cycle so as not to overlap it with other periods of high energy demand, such as reproduction.
During this period, the hens experience significant psychological stress and are prone to health problems due to appalling conditions, comparable to the scarcity of food or the cleaning of the premises.
New feathers are easily distinguished from old ones; to do so, simply note that they are wider, with large, full, and soft shafts, and appear clean and shiny, whereas old feathers are more pointed and look worn, with hard, small, and almost transparent shafts.
Persistent layers, which start molting late, produce more feathers at the same time: two, three, and four, depending on the speed of molting, and thus complete it sooner.
In this case, when we find primary feathers of the same length, they are considered as a single feather for the purpose of calculating the time since molting began. Furthermore, even good layers do not always molt all their primary feathers, which, combined with the rapid growth of the others, greatly shortens the molting period.
Molting is generally classified as early, intermediate, or late. In poor layers, molting occurs early, and the process is very slow and barely noticeable. They also do not resume laying any sooner than those that molt late, not beginning their second laying year until December–January, and thus remain unproductive for about four months. Raising hens that molt at an intermediate stage is generally beneficial.
Laying hens that continue to lay well into the summer begin their molting season late; they stop laying for only two to three months.
In these late-moulting birds, the feathers fall out quickly and their plumage appears coarse and disordered, with their bodies quickly becoming covered in rudimentary feathers.
In these chickens, the completion of molting and the start of egg production occur almost simultaneously, beginning just as soon as those that molted early. These birds are vigorous and have high production rates; they require careful attention.
In exceptional cases, among very good layers, hens go without laying for only four or five weeks, and they begin laying again before their new feathers have fully grown in.
When selecting laying chickens at the end of their first year, the condition of their plumage will give us an indication of their laying persistence. Highly persistent layers, due to their frequent visits to the nesting box and the fact that their feathers are still old, will appear worn, dry at the base, ragged, and dirty, whereas poor layers will have shiny, glossy plumage.
There are factors believed to influence molting, which can cause it to occur earlier, later, or outside the normal season. Poor nutrition and a lack of vitality cause molting to occur earlier, while a good diet delays it.
