I thought it would be good to do some up to date portraits. Most of the girls have their pale winter combs. Slow moulting has been going on for ages.
Dot seems to have been dropping feathers for a very long time. She has recently been dropping tail feathers but her comb has started to get a little pink. Snowflake has also been dropping tail feathers. She has gone from looking as she was through the moult to now having some tatty tail feathers.
Sugar has been dropping small feathers for a while and Diamond has been dropping fluffy white feathers for ages but never looks any different and has kept her red comb.
Snowflake remains the most nervous of our girls and doesn’t like the camera so is the most difficult to photograph. Gold, Storm and Diamond are the easiest to photo as they are happy to have the camera in front of them.
Gold is the easiest of all and in fact made it more difficult to get photos of the other girls as she constantly photo bombs. She was so close to the camera, as she takes an interest in anything in my hands, that I had photos of her face, eyes, beak, so close that it was ridiculous. Gold also has a very red face and comb.
I decided to pick two photos of each girl to give the essence of them at the moment. I will do this again when they have started laying and have their red combs.
I am putting the photos in age order.
Although we got Diamond later in the year than Gold, Storm and Snowflake, she was older when we got her. This puts them at a similar age.
Salmon and Spangle are the oldest seramas we have had so far. I am hoping that as they are probably done with egg laying they will remain healthy.
With the rest of the girls being younger I am really hoping that the current flock will be long lived. It would be so lovely if we could keep this flock as it is.
It will be interesting to see how well Diamond lays and what size her eggs are. She is the only girl yet to start laying.
I am looking forward to the start of egg laying, probably around March, but you never know they could surprise me with an earlier start.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Some great pictures, they all look very good, and healthy.
I took the photos over a couple of days to try to get some good ones. They do all look great. They are such a happy and together flock.
It is amazing how they have such divergent personalities, some very happy in front of the lens and others preferring to avoid it. Eggs will be nice to have, but I agree with you that it is something of a relief when our oldest girls (especially Seramas) have stopped altogether.
Gold and Storm still jump on my back every day when I clean up the run. I wonder why some girls do this and others not. My reason for not having seramas in the future even though I love them, as you know, is that they are so prone to egg laying problems. I am therefore hoping that Salmon and Spangle have done with egg laying and as Sugar only lays for one week per month hopefully she shouldn’t have problems.
All looking very beautiful and healthy! xx
Thank you, I am very happy with how they are all looking. xx