Poor Dotty and the bedtime routine

Poor Dotty is having a really hard moult. At first I felt the moult wasn’t having much effect on the girls but that was before Dotty suddenly lost loads of feathers at once including her tail. She looks much worse than the other girls and isn’t her usual self. She seems to have lost her confidence.

Usually when I dig for worms Dotty would get the lions share because she was so much faster than the other girls. Now when I dig for worms Dotty doesn’t get any as she hangs back with the bantys and is slow. Just when she needs them most she is missing out.

She is last to get to me when I have treats although once she gets there she gets stuck in but sometimes when I give the late afternoon corn she comes to me first before joining the others.

She was always jumping on my back but now looks like she wants to, her neck twisting to judge a jump, but doesn’t always seem to have the confidence. To help her out I stand next to her when she is on the coop roof and she steps across to me then back to the coop roof when she is ready. It’s heart warming that she wants that contact but also pulls at my heart strings that it’s not so easy and confidant as usual.

This was Dotty two weeks ago when she looked shabby but still had a tail.

Dotty still had a tail

Two days later her tail fell out leaving one remaining small feather. Two weeks later she is still hanging on to that last tail feather.

Dotty still has one remaining tail feather

The cold weather is changing the bedtime routine but again Dotty is reacting differently from the other girls. The bantys have been going in the coop before the automatic door closes for a couple of weeks now.

The colder dusk temperatures seem to have sparked a change in Pepper and Bluebell and they have now gone in the coop themselves for the last three nights.

Poor Dotty is alone on the coop roof at dusk waiting for me to lift her down and put her in. I feel the reason for this is, because she isn’t herself at the the moment, she goes up to the coop roof first and whereas the other girls were going to the coop roof but staying alert, she hunkers down into a snoozing position.

Now it’s turned colder Pepper and Bluebell do the pecking round the coop door ritual then go in. By now it’s too dark for Dotty to join them so she waits for me. I go in at dusk and as I approach the coop I talk gently so she knows it’s me and then stand next to the coop. Dotty shuffles over towards me as if she wants me to lift her down.

I do this as gently as I can but she squeaks and feels like a hedgehog and I know it must be uncomfortable for her. If only she would go in herself, I wouldn’t have to lift her down. Yet I feel that until she gets through the moult and is herself again she won’t go in herself. She seems to want me to put her in.

I am so looking forward to Dotty getting her feathers back and regaining her confidence. It will be so good to see her back to her normal self again.