After a thorough, external evaluation and necropsy were conducted with all three birds, we have concluded that Bird A represents what a chicken looks like when at the end of molting. We concluded that Bird A represents end of molting because when necropsied we found that there was almost no fat, as well as shrunken reproductive organs such as the ovaries. Externally, Bird A weighed way less than Birds B and C. We believe that this is because the bird has exerted a lot of reserved energy into staying alive and growing new feathers. Also, Bird A had been not eating feed in the start of molting for a certain number of days, presumably for a week or two when molting was encouraged. Besides being small in weight, Bird A was found to have many healthy new feathers growing around the bird, a pale pink comb, and more yellow legs than Bird B. …show more content…
We have settled on this because externally, Bird B had many rough, dirty feathers all around its body. We concluded that Bird B must have been at a stage before Bird A because there was a lot of fat and weight still on the bird when compared to Bird A. When Bird A was touched while still alive many of the dirty, rough feathers fell off therefore we presumed that this bird must have either been at a stage of just beginning or in the middle of molting the feathers off. We compared the combs of both Birds A and B, and determined they were the same shade of pale pink. Internally, Bird B had a few, very small ovaries and fat storage which also led us to believe why this bird was in a mid-molting