Toffee stopped laying at the end of March and Emerald at the end of April. They were the first to moult but do it slowly and Emerald is still dropping the odd feather and still has some pins under her tail.
Peaches is at the opposite end of the scale and went on laying until the end of September. She had a fast and furious moult.
Whereas Barley lost her tail feathers one by one Peaches lost her entire tail in one go.
Peaches with no tail
A scruffy looking Peaches
Peaches is full of pins
Peaches feathers are opening
Peaches feathers are nearly there
Peaches just has one small patch of grey under feathers showing
Her tail is now fully grown
Her feathers have all filled in
In just under two months she has gone from looking a mess to being completely back to normal. It has been amazing to see how fast she has moulted and grown her feathers back again and all done in time for winter.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Apparently the best layers tend to have moults that are fast and vice versa
It is certainly that way with my girls so I believe that it must be so. Toffee and Emerald lay the least (game girls have a very short laying season) and they moult long and slow. Peaches and Barley are the best layers and moult fast and furious. Peaches excelled herself this year and laid for a month longer than Barley and therefore had an even faster moult.
She certainly look good now. Are you getting eggs yet,our neigbours hens have all started laying again, thank goodness, no more shop eggs for a while.
No eggs at the moment. The main flock usually start laying again in March. It is possible that the Rusty and Freckles may start laying before Christmas as they will be six month old by then. Pebbles is already over a year old so she is an unknown quantity to me and I don’t have any idea when she will start laying. Your neighbour may have younger girls.
No ? No eggs still – I’ll be surprised if we get any before the end of January now. My mum has hybrids though so she gives me eggs during the winter so I don’t have to buy them ?
No eggs here either. You are lucky to have some from your mum. We have had to buy them for now and they are nothing like as good as our own lovely eggs. I can’t wait to have our own eggs again.
Your photographic record shows the stages of Peaches’ moult just beautifully. Eggs finished here, too – 2 weeks since the last one; two who had moulted came back into lay, produced half a dozen eggs each, then stopped again. Hoping my pullets will start by Christmas (five are 25 weeks and 3 are 23 weeks).
Sounds like you might have eggs before Christmas. I am hoping Freckles and Rusty might start then too. At the moment it feels like a rumour that these little girls actually lay eggs but Sophie e-mailed me to say one of her seramas had laid her first egg. I can’t wait to see the little girls eggs, it feels like first eggs all over again. I will be so excited and you can expect photos when it happens!
I’ve had six eggs from Nellie since halloween Carol! No sign from the others as yet though!
Wow! That is amazing. I think maybe these girls have to do it in their own time. If I had to take a bet I think Freckles will be much sooner than Rusty because it seems that different feather types mature at different rates. Rusty is still quite chick like but she is so cute. Keep me posted when you get eggs from your other girls.