Feathers are strewn on the ground, and are piling up in corners and caught against the fence.
I
Is this the result of a fox attack? Carnage?
No.
It’s all from one molting cochin hen.
Pearl.
Look at her. She wouldn’t even make a proper feather duster.
She doesn’t look good from any angle.
Certainly not from the rear.
Nor from above.
Those bumps on her bare back are the new feathers coming in. They’re call pin feathers. Ouch. No wonder she looks to be in a bad mood.
I estimate that Pearl has lost about two-thousand feathers so far. Only seven-thousand more to go.
Ah poor Pearl! She does look quite the mess right now.
Poor Pearl!
But calm down! It was not!!! because of a predator!
I found lots of feathers under the roost but wasn’t sure if it was Betty or Marilyn until I went to lock them in last night. They were free ranging in our pasture.
As they saw me, everyone of them started running-half flying to get there first. (I give them a hand full of shelled sunflowers seeds as their before bed time treat.)
And then I saw it was Betty molting…she had feathers flying off her as she hurried with the rest of them…so cute…it made me smile and love them more.
Yes, so funny to see feathers flying in the wake of a running hen.
I put similar photos to these on my blog as Topaz is moulting. It is amazing how many handfuls of feathers there are to pick up. She also loses them as she runs and has the pins coming in the bare bits. She doesn’t look quite as scruffy as poor pearl though.
She will look beautiful again when she is all feathered up once more.
She’ll be ready for winter!
She´ll be the prettiest in spring!
Mine are molting too, even though this is our warmest time of year.
My ruby is finishing her second molt, she looks better now than after her first one, is this usual?
Poor Pearl! I wish I would haven taken photos of my one little belgian. She had no tail or neck feathers. But she is growing them all back now.
Pearl — can’t wait until you’re back to your feathery self.
Mine are molting too. They just grew beautiful new tails and they didn’t even try to eat the feathers all over the ground……YAY! I cleaned them up daily just in case. Now just waiting for eggs, they are 21 weeks old.