I rounded the corner to the coop the other day and was greeted by a terrifying sight. James had virtually no feathers on her head.
Did you know that chickens molt? Apparently, some worse than others. Some can lose a bunch of feathers, and simply look a bit scraggly. But others can molt so badly that they’re one step away from looking ready for the rotisserie. So far, James’ molting is only really apparent on her head, but, sheesh, she looks a little scary.
I suspected this was coming. I had noticed recently a whole lot of feathers in the coop, all black and white ones. I fear that streak of 50° days made James think it was spring. Time to lose feathers! Little did she know, we’d still have single digit weather ahead.
I brought her inside today to give her a thorough once-over. I wanted to make sure we didn’t have a dire disease on our hands. She ate and drank, but not ravenously. (She only did that later when I served up some mac & cheese leftovers after lunch.) Although her comb and waddle looked a bit pale, I suspect she is just molting. That pile of feathers Ellery has in her hands in the third photo are what she left behind after being in our house for just 20 minutes. Yikes.
Of course, this is all happening just in time for me to leave town, dumping it all into Tom’s hands.
Bonus photo of Princess Ariel, chicken feather hand model.
