This morning when I opened the coop it looked as if one of the bantys had exploded. I couldn’t believe the amount of feathers and yet the little girls don’t look any different. They don’t even look ragged and tatty like the big girls.
Every time I went in to the girls I picked up a load more feathers from the run.
The bantys favourite place to sit
Several times I cleared this log that the bantys like to sit on. I can now see why people say they go into the run and for a few seconds think a predator may have attacked one of their girls. This is my first experience of a proper moult and I am now better prepared to know what to expect.
Meanwhile Pepper still has the sudocrem on her bottom but Dotty has completely preened it off of her bottom.
Bottoms with and without sudocrem
Bluebells fluffy bottom
This photo illustrates something that I have mentioned before. Although Pepper and Dotty are the same breed and came from the same farm they look quite different (the farm had two breeding trios and I always felt these two may have come from different parents), Pepper’s tail is always quite horizontal and curves downwards almost like a cockerels whereas Dotty’s tail curves upwards. Bluebell’s tail is straight up and she still has a fluffy bottom.
I think the bantys head feathers are also growing back in. Although they still have patches of bare skin showing they are speckled rather than complete round bare patches.
Honey
Amber
My ideal scenario is that they moult, they regrow their feathers, with winter coming they stop plucking, and they stay beautifully fully feathered. In reality this probably won’t happen and they will continue to pluck them back out again, I can but hope.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Apart from a few feathers mine have not moulted yet and Clover is a hybred and over 3 years old . A few lost feathers last year I could count on one hand .
I am convinced there is a difference with the moult between hybrid and pure breeds because with Bluebell there is an odd feather and you would hardly notice but with the pure breeds it’s like I have read on other blogs, it looks like a pillow fight in the coop each morning and I am constantly picking up feathers all day long from the run. My chicken bin is just full of feathers. It really does look like an explosion! You can’t believe there can be so many feathers and yet the girls are not bald! I have looked at others moulting girls and they look much worse then mine (some without tails and pretty much oven ready!), luckily I think mine have so much down that despite shedding an alarming amount of feathers they don’t actually look much different.
Having seen some photos of what they can look like, I am quite pleased with how mine are progressing. Despite the alarming amount of feathers their combs are still very red, they are happy and they are still laying some eggs, so I feel they are coping pretty well.