The stair landing in my house is large enough for a bench, but not much else. A bench needs a table, but in this space, with the light slanting in from a window up high, the furniture that could fit into that narrow slot looked squished in and short.  The solution was to turn a vintage chicken crate into an end table.

I try not to overdo the chicken decor. I have no desire to have kitschy ceramic roosters on every surface. But, the bench was just the place for the pillow that I made out of an old feed sack. And, old signs with bold lettering look modern. Old signs with chickens and eggs in a great old font on a bold yellow background? That’s my sort of chicken-themed decor. What’s yours?

I’m perfecting the apple pie recipes that I’ll be teaching in the baking class here on October 26. I’ve been baking fruit pies without recipes for years, so the class is the push that I’ve needed to write what I do down.

This is a rustic apple pie with a walnut and oat crumble topping.

In the class, not only will you get hands on experience learning how to make the perfect pie crust, but you’ll take an entire pie home with you! Only three spots remain First dibs to HenCam readers, but at the end of the week I’ll be spreading the word locally, so if you’re thinking about it, sign up now.

It’s that time of year when feathers blow into piles in the corners of the coop, when a little white hen takes a dust bath and the wallow turns white from her down, and when chickens look downright ridiculous.

If this is your first year keeping hens then don’t worry, chickens don’t go through a molt until they’ve reached 18 or so months of age. Your hens will continue to look lovely. Just wait for next fall, though, when all 8,000 feathers on each hen fall out.

The above photo is of Florence. Some of the feathers, as they loosen, turn around backwards. A hen molts unevenly, so parts of her will look naked, part will be scraggly, part fluffy. The hens do much preening trying to put their feathers right. It’s hopeless.

Buffy, being an ancient hen, is going through a particularly dramatic molt. It looks like she stuck her foot in an electric socket.

The worst layers molt first. Pearl molted way back in the beginning of August. She’s now back to her gloriously poufy self. True to her cochin nature, she is also back in the nesting box, broody (this photo shows her on a rare outing.)

There are always exceptions to the rule. Edwina is even older than Buffy and hasn’t laid an egg in years. But, she shows no sign of molting. She looks as perfect as ever. She is the great dowager queen of the barnyard.

When hens molt, they stop laying. Regrowing feathers takes great stores of minerals and protein. They can’t make both eggs and feathers at the same time. A few Gems are not yet in a full molt. I know this because I continue to find eggs in the nesting boxes. Not many, but this time of year I’m happy to collect any from the flock. The girls need a rest. The egg basket will fill up again come February.

To learn about the molt and how to take care of  your scraggly hens, read this FAQ.

Eggs from “cage-free” hens are not what most consumers think. The hens might not be in wire crates, but they are still inside, in very crowded conditions. “Free to roam” means just as little. “Access to the outdoors” usually means that there’s a door to a small screened area (the size of a porch on your own home) for 50,000 birds. That small door is not always open.

This photo shows what “free-range” should mean. The birds are truly on the range (“range” being a term for wide open spaces on grass). This is a flock of White Leghorn laying hens. Can you imagine 1,200 chickens, just like my Twiggy, running hither and yon on pasture? That I’d like to see!

Of the six pullets (I call them my Literary Ladies), five are now laying. Twiggy, the White Leghorn, has been the star producer, creating six to seven bright white eggs per week. She started early and hasn’t stopped. Next to lay was Nancy Drew, the Black Star. She’s a hybrid and is supposed to be a prolific layer of brown eggs. So far, she’s had a bit of difficulty getting her system into sync. She’ll lay lovely, perfectly-formed eggs, and then take a break. Yesterday she laid a soft-shelled egg late in the day. Everyone else was on the roost. It’s rare for a hen to lay in the dark. Usually, the hen will hold it in until sunrise the next morning. My guess is that she’s not giving the shell enough time to form (it takes hours!) or perhaps her shell gland isn’t functioning properly yet. If Betsy sees a soft-shelled egg, she’ll eat it. Perhaps that’s why that pesky little bantam has been avidly watching the nesting boxes from the vantage point of the roost. If I keep an eye on the nesting boxes and collect eggs frequently, I should be able to limit that bad behavior.

The two Ameracaunas, Beatrix and Owly, have been laying such pretty eggs. Beatrix’s is a dusky olive-blue, and Owly’s is a shade more of a pure blue.

Misty, the Blue Andalusian (she’s supposed to be blue, but her feathers are black as an Australorp’s) has, for the last week, been squawking loudly. Her comb had a growth spurt, and now flops over like Twiggy’s cap. She laid an egg yesterday! It is ivory in color, it’s not as pure white as Twiggy’s so I can tell them apart.

The only one not laying is the Cuckoo Marans, Veronica. She’s fat. She’s sassy. She hasn’t ever even peeked into a nesting box. Her egg should be chocolate brown, and I’ll recognize it if she ever lays one. Marans are known to be late to mature, but at 25 weeks, I think it’s time. Veronica, however seems in no hurry.

left to right, eggs by: Nancy Drew, Misty, Twiggy, Owly, Beatrix