The heavens parted and sun shone down and everything was… well, okay, it was still soggy and cold. But at least it was better-lit.
What is that perplexing, ugly object? It’s Dolly, who has lost about a third of her feathers all at once.
The poor thing is clearly miserable. All hunched up and quiet like that.
Ooh, terrible! She looks like a bad marionette.
Here you can really see the quills that sprout out, before the feathers unfold. Don’t they look uncomfortable?
I’m guessing she would not have signed a waiver to appear on the blog at this time. But you know what? I don’t care. I haven’t gotten a single egg in over a week. I had to BUY eggs from the STORE today. At least I can use them for blog fodder!
Ouch! I never really thought about what the feathers look like when they come in. Kind of makes me glad I’m not a bird.
Back when I had a parrot, she really enjoyed getting those feather straws scritched. Do your chickies like to be touched at all?
Poor Dolly. She really does look… pitiful.
I wouldn’t want to touch them when they looked like that. I’d feel guilty about it, but ew. Glad it’s temporary! (now I feel really shallow)
(but I’ve never gotten the point of those naked cats, either)
Excuse a chicken Muggle… Why are they losing feathers, at the beginning of winter? Do they later get a winter coat, like dogs?
Chicken Muggle *falls about laughing*
I’ve always been puzzled by why our chickens molt just as cold weather sets in. Spring would be so much more sensible. But then again, chickens aren’t exactly sensible birds…
At least she’ll get fresh new beautiful (double!) feathers after this awkward molting business is finished.
You’ll have to shoot an ‘after’ photo to make up for using her as blog fodder.
It seems like pretty poor planning, doesn’t it, Calcetera? I think the idea is that this way they’re assured of having a full coat in winter. Because molting season is when they grow back any feathers they may have lost during the year.
But if it was me, I would start molting a lot earlier! Like August or so. Gives you plenty of time to, you know, not be naked in the middle of November!
I have to say I burst out laughing when I saw the third picture. The neck, the neck!!! That’s not a chicken, it’s a FLAMINGO!!! Oh, poor birdie!
She needs one of your moebius neck warmers.
You should add a light to their coop. They probably (actually definitely) stopped laying because of the decreasing daylight. When we had chickens we kept a light on 14 hours out of the day during the winter so we’d keep getting eggs from them.
That’s a contentious issue, as I’m sure you’re aware! I decided not to supplement with light this second winter – they laid all the way through their first winter – but if they haven’t started laying again by mid-January, I’ll re-evaluate my decision, for sure.