Moulting

Emerald has been moulting heavily for the past couple of weeks. I wasn’t sure about Speckles though as she was still growing some feathers from where she had been plucked but for the last few days she didn’t look happy.

She was sitting in the run looking miserable. I had thought that if I didn’t know better I would think she was moulting. I started to worry something was wrong with her and then I found some of her feathers in the run. I felt relieved, she is just moulting.

Speckles always looks miserable when she moults. I checked back to last year and she started to moult in July and Emerald started to moult after her. It’s all a little early this year.

I think Emerald is moulting earlier because she continued to lay eggs three weeks longer than usual and then had a brief, broody moment, for the first time ever. I think this triggered the moult.

I think Speckles having been plucked and growing new feathers may have triggered her early moult. Since she started growing back her feathers she has only laid two eggs but they were both whoppers!

The little girls are all laying, on average, every other day so they are keeping us supplied with enough eggs for our needs even though we eat the eggs, two or three each, at a time. It will be great if they continue like this through the winter.

Speckles looks sad

Emerald has one tiny tail feather left

Two scruffy girls together

It will be quite good to get the moulting over and done with, both at once. The little girls just moult a few feathers each day, all year round, which means that they should continue to lay all year round. This also means that I only have to pick up loads of feathers from the two bigger girls. It is a different experience for me this year.

It will be interesting to see if the little girls really do lay all winter. It will be great if they do as it would mean we would have a constant supply of eggs and I wouldn’t need to buy any.

They do take a break from laying each time they go broody but if they continue to do this one at a time there will still be enough girls laying to keep us supplied.