Over the last week feathers have been dropping from the girls in heaps. I spend more time picking up feathers than poop picking. As the girls move feathers waft from them.
Some of the girls are looking more tatty than others though. The three bigger girls don’t look bad at the moment. Speckles has had a slow moult this year and she looks good. Her feather dropping has slowed right down now so I think that she may be through it now.
Speckles
Speckles from the other side
Ebony
You can just see a feather falling from under Ebony’s tail.
Ebony from the other side
Ebony has retained the white on her head and some white tips to her wing and tail feathers.
Flame
Flame looks good at the moment but today was the first day that I found lots of her feathers so I suspect she may soon start to look tatty.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon looks good and her comb is a lovely red colour. She was dropping feathers and had taken a break from laying but has now stopped dropping feathers and is laying again.
Jasmine
Jasmine doesn’t appear to be dropping any feathers and is still laying. She also has a lovely red comb. She is so curious, look at how she stretches forward to see me with the camera.
Smoke
Smoke again
It has only been nine days since Smoke came out of her long broody spell and yet she laid an egg yesterday. I have been finding piles of her grey feathers and yet she doesn’t actually look any different apart from the white carotene on her head.
Spangle
Spangle again
Spangle has messy breast feathers but that is the only sign that she is moulting. She too looks at me with great interest.
Salmon
Salmon again
Salmon is moulting quite heavily. She has pins on the back of her head and her breast feathers look messy too.
And then we come to Marmite! Marmite is moulting the heaviest of all the girls and is looking very tatty.
Marmite
Marmite again
A very tatty Marmite
Look at the gap in her tail feathers. She does have plenty of pins though on her head and neck and throat.
Poor Marmite! I feel for her but she will soon be looking beautiful again I am sure. This is the first time the amigos have moulted so it’s a new experience. It is also Ebony’s first moult too.
They have a bit of a loss of confidence when they are moulting. It’s a good thing to get this over now though while it’s still warm. Hopefully they will all be fully feathered before we go into winter.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Aw, poor Marmite! xxSo
She does look sad but she has pins so at least feathers are coming through. So much for seramas moulting a few feathers at a time! xx
They will soon be back looking lovely.
They will. It’s good to see the new feathers coming through and Marmite’s pins are unfurling.
Great photos, Carol – Marmite is clearly, at the moment, in the worst state – but that award will not doubt go to someone else before long.
I think you are right. I picked up what seemed like a bucket load of Flame’s feathers at lunch time. I really don’t remember picking up so many feathers before. I am amazed that she still doesn’t look too bad at the moment. I think Marmite looks even worse today. Her breast feathers are just wafting away from her.