There have been lot’s of tiny feathers from Flame in the chicken shed each morning. She is now looking quite tatty. I am not surprised because Flame looked very tatty last year when she moulted.
Flame is moulting
Flame is looking really tatty
It’s funny how they all moult quite differently. The little girls hardly look any different except for Marmite who lost loads of feathers at once and is now a mass of pins.
Speckles has moulted a few feathers at a time this year and has hardly looked any different apart from when she lost her tail feathers.
Ebony has had two partial moults. She didn’t moult last year but this year she went broody and had a partial moult and then started laying again. She then went broody again and once more had a partial moult. To my surprise she then started laying again. Ebony took a break for two and a half weeks then started laying again four days ago and has now laid three eggs.
Smoke also started laying again eleven days ago and has laid seven eggs. All the other girls have stopped laying. Between Ebony and Smoke we are getting enough eggs for the weekend breakfasts.
It is great to still be getting some eggs and I look forward to seeing the girls all fully feathered again.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Poor Flame! She normally looks so striking! xx
She is a striking looking girl but she had a messy moult last year. She ended up looking a lot worse than this. She will soon grow her feathers back though. The bigger girls seem to grow their feathers more quickly. xx
It’s quite hard to watch isn’t it. My 18 month old pekin Duck is about half way through her first moult which made her really poorly for a few days and she’s now looking awful and about half her normal size. Then Camilla my 18 month old campine bantam has just started moulting – she’s normally really boisterous, never stops eating and loves people, but now she just seems so miserable. Can’t wait for them all to be back to normal!
It is hard to watch. I find they seem to have a complete loss of confidence when they have a heavy moult. Marmite has been perching on the high branch perches out of the way of the other girls. Flame has been hanging back a bit when I give out the treats and generally hanging away from the flock a bit. I always feel that I can’t wait for them to get back to normal.
She is still a good looking girl.
She is.
I have several looking not dissimilar to Flame. 3 broodies at the moment, so ther’ll be even fewer eggs! (One of them is Cotton, btw – she’s laid 10 eggs this time, before going back to her preferred state!)
Flame looked just like this last year so I expected it. She does lose confidence when like this and hangs back from the rest of the flock. I so identify with the ten eggs then broody!