I am picking up a hand full of feathers from Speckles every time I go in the run.
Speckles is beginning to look a bit scruffy
She is dropping her tail feathers
She has some loose feathers sticking out
Later in the day she has even less tail feathers
Her comb and wattles are pale and her comb is smaller than it was. This time last year she lost her tail and it looks like it won’t be long before she loses it again this year.
Only Peaches and Barley are yet to moult and their egg laying has slowed down to one or two eggs each a week.
The good news is that Butterscotch laid this morning. This will boost our egg total a bit as she lays most days once she starts again. Every time she goes broody she seems to moult a bit more than the time before and I am convinced that she won’t lay again but each time she does lay again. It will be interesting to see how long she goes on before stopping completely.
This time if she goes broody again I will close up the nest boxes as by then I don’t expect much egg laying from the remaining two girls. This will break her of being broody in a couple of days and I hope this will mean she will keep her head and neck feathers.
Meanwhile I am just glad to have the prospect of a couple of weeks of regular eggs from Butterscotch and I intend to make the most of them before egg production ceases completely.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Ah, the annual molt. I’m just starting to find big girl feathers so they are just starting to molt. And the babies are pushing out their teenager feathers to grow in their adult feathers. So I’m drowning in feathers.
But this too shall pass.
It seems to come round so soon but as you say it will pass and all the girls will look at their beautiful best once more.
Good job they do not molt at the same time,At least this way you allways have some eggs.
That is true for the moment but once the last girls start their moult the eggs will stop. We had Butterscotch’s eggs last winter because they lay through their first winter but this winter we won’t have any eggs at all. I have just looked back and Peaches and Barley laid through August last year then moulted so we have another month of eggs yet. Butterscotch is the unknown quantity because as she laid last winter I don’t know when she will stop. The staggered moult does at least mean that we don’t stop getting eggs from them all at the same time.
It will be interesting when I tally up the egg totals at the end of the year because I think despite Butterscotch going broody every month she will probably still have laid the most eggs. This is because the other girls lay three or four eggs a week but when Butterscotch is laying she can lay six eggs a week.
It will be interesting to compare them after a full year and to see how long Butterscotch continues before taking a winter break.