Feathers and combs

It’s interesting to look closely at the girls feathers and combs at this time of year.

Butterscotch’s crest is almost back to her former glory and she has a tiny black comb.

Butterscotch’s crest is almost there

Emerald and Toffee

These two have small combs and they are still pale after their moult. Emerald has the smallest comb of all.

Speckles comb is pale after the moult

Speckles head feathers stick up

When we first had Speckles a year ago she had two little head feathers sticking up. Then she moulted and I wondered if these would disappear but she grew them back again. This year she moulted and they dropped out and once again I wondered if they would come back. Sure enough they are back so they are obviously a little feature of hers almost like a miniature crest.

Speckles head is whiter than before her moult.

I wanted to get some photos of Peaches and Barley so I crouched down on the patio and waited for the girls to come to me. I think Speckles looks so tiny in amongst the flock.

The girls come to see me

You can just see Emerald in the background. She had been perched up and was slower than the other girls to come to the patio.

Barley has a right flopping comb and Peaches has a left flopping comb but Barley’s comb is bigger than Peaches and she can only see out of her left eye most of the time.

Barley can only see out of her left eye

Her right eye is covered by her comb

Peaches has a smaller comb

Barley on the table

Barley had jumped on my back and I had just bobbed down next to the table for her to step off.

Barley photo bombs

This was just before Barley jumped to my back and she photo bombed so close that her comb is blurred but I thought the photo was funny so decided to include it. It is typical of her, many photos of her have a blurred comb as she is always on the move and always bobbing her comb so that she can see.

Barley and Peaches have yet to start moulting so their combs are still nice and red but in winter they shrink and go very pale.

Peaches and Barley are an inseparable pair of girls but are actually quite different characters. Barley is the one who has spats now and again and won’t take any nonsense from any of the girls. She is the one who is always at the front of the flock and jumps on me the most. She is the most noisy and is constantly squeaking away. She also stands at the nest box and shouts when Peaches is trying to get her egg laid and she stands on the perch squeaking away at any time that I am in the garden or sitting on the patio.

However Barley is not as good an egg layer as Peaches and only lays three quarters as many eggs as Peaches does. I wonder if Barley’s bigger comb is what makes her the stronger character of the two girls although Speckles has a big comb (when she isn’t moulting) and is a timid girl. I wonder if the size of the comb only makes a difference if they are the same breed or if it’s just coincidental.

It is interesting in a small flock how noticeably different the girls characters are.