Toffee hasn’t laid an egg for two weeks now. I was wondering why she had stopped laying when suddenly she started moulting. It seems a bit early to be moulting.
The game girls do have a short laying season and Toffee’s is a bit shorter than Emerald’s but this is short even for her.
Last year Toffee started laying at the beginning of April and finished at the end of May. She laid thirty five eggs in two months.
This year Toffee started half way through March and stopped at the end of April. She has laid twenty six eggs in one and a half months.
This is Toffee and Emerald’s third egg laying year with us but as the farmer used game birds as his broodies I can’t be sure how old they were when we got them. They may have been one or two years old already.
Both Toffee and Emerald are showing white tips to their feathers when they lose their outer wing feathers. It’s almost like us going grey.
Toffee’s feathers
I picked these up one morning a few days ago and picked up the same again in the afternoon.
Toffee’s white tipped feather
As she loses outer wing feathers a white tipped feather is exposed.
Toffee has a bunch of loose feathers under each wing
Toffee has feathers sticking out under each wing
I took these photos of Toffee yesterday. As she moves feathers are fluttering from her. I looked back at last year and she did start moulting at the end of May so I am guessing her earlier start to egg laying this year is why she is moulting earlier.
When researching game birds before I got them I had read that they were poor layers and was surprised because while Toffee and Emerald lay they do lay almost every day. I now think that it is meaning the amount of eggs per year because they have such a short season.
They are such lovely girls though that I couldn’t care about that. I would always want game girls in my flock as I love the way they look and the way they behave. They are adorable. It is interesting how different the different breeds are and that is part of what I love about my diverse little flock.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
The last picture, Such different looking girls, All lovely in thier own ways.
We commented on how different their shapes are in the last photo. Toffee and Emerald have what I think of as a bottle shape with their long necks and rounded shoulders and Butterscotch has hardly any neck at all amongst her fluffiness.
It does seem very early to moult but, as you say, it falls in line with her short laying season. Toffee clearly has no tendency to broodiness, dspite the farmer using game birds as broodies. That’s probably a good thing, given the Butterscotch factor! 5 broody here at the moment.
I have often thought it odd that the farmer used game birds as broodies when both Toffee and Emerald have never shown any inclination to go broody while with me and this is their third summer of egg laying. As you say it’s a good thing as I have Butterscotch going broody as regular as clockwork. She is currently laying every day once more.
Five broodies, my goodness, I am glad I don’t have more than one.
Haha, my Speckles has a plain white feather too!
This happened last year, so I’m thinking there’s got to be something with the follicle (I’ll just call it that) that makes it white. We’ve managed to keep her first one, so this fall the second one should be ready to drop off and add to feather collections. 😉
It is funny that they have an odd feather that is different but it adds to each girl being unique.