The Shockingly Ugly Molt

Forget Motley Crew.  This is the Moltly Crew.  =)

Here's my whole flock of eight girls!
3 Australorps
2 Ameracaunas
1 Rhode Island Red
2 Delawares

I have been keeping an eye on my pecked chicken, and she keeps looking pretty bad.  BUT!  I noticed that Cannibal was looking a bit scruffy last week, too.  But wait, she's at the top of the pecking order!  And my best layer, Big Mama, has great globs of feathers missing from her neck.   !!   I began to worry!  Worms!  Fleas!  Mites!  Illness!  Disease!  Filth!  Ackk!

So I cornered the worst looking girl, Cannibal, and she was very upset at being picked up.  So to calm her down, I hung her upside down by her feet.  She rested quietly while I gave her the once over twice.  =)

A decent chicken

An indecent chicken, but the baby feathers are already growing in, masking her nudity.

She had dandruff (actually, it was the casing on the feathers) and she was so incredibly naked, I couldn't believe it.  No feathers on her belly, almost naked wings, but her vent was in fine condition: healthy, pink and moist.  Gross, eh?  I set her down, concerned, and went inside to disinfect my hands.  After doing so, it occurred to me that maybe she, and Big Mama were molting.  I inspected the other girls, and the rest of them look much better. Why would that be?  One of them is the same breed!

My new babies, (not laying yet) which are white and red, have been leaving feathers all over the yard as they grow in more adult and winter feathers, but they look sleek and fluffy.  Even Shane agrees they are cute!

Off to the internet where I discovered that, yes, of COURSE my birds are molting, and that's why we are also seeing maybe one egg a day.  And that really good layers molt HARD, and the average layers molt slowly over a longer period of time and don't look quite as scary.  What a relief!

The girls have been switched over to the yard that I gardened in all summer, and are enjoying new and interesting things to peck at.  They love the raised garden bed! I am planning to till up the soil in the yard they just vacated and plant some winter rye in there.  I want to garden there next spring, as well.

I also fixed up a broody hen yard, so that if Crystal (or anybody else) decides to set again next spring, she'll have a little coop all to herself, a fenced in yard and the winter rye in that yard is already three or four inches high.  =)  How nice!