Mabel is nearly three years old and our oldest gal.
She's lived with us since she was a pullet, when she was growing her first adult millie-fleur feathers.
They were lovely, Mabel loved them. She love them so much that she decided to hang onto them for two years!
No effort was put into obtaining glossy, warm, new feathers last Autumn. Much to my dismay, her egg factory remained in full working order.
In August of this year her feathers were a sorry sight. All of her foot feathers had broken off and every other feather she possessed was split and generally ragged looking.
But then it happened…a moult!
The garden was littered with her feathers and she looked even worse than she had done throughout the year but eventually they grew back.
We weren't prepared for just HOW they grew back!
This is Mabel before her moult…
…and after.
She's turning white!
Please excuse the slightly out of focus, distance shot of Mabel. I realise that they're not the best but I do have a valid reason.
The following pictures hopefully validate the reason…
…..
oh but brown speckles are SO last year, this year its ALL ABOUT white!
ReplyDeletehere, Melanie has moulted and stopped laying, Edie has lost all her knickers and tries to keep her bald bottom warm, and Joan continues to lay- no moult but hopefully she might at last be growing a tail
What a lovely new colour! And what a funny girl needing to get in the way of the photo shoot. Some people (and some chickens) always seem to need to be in the spotlight. LOL!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Rachy! Loved, loved those last photos. They made me chuckle.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to invite you to stop by my blog to help me celebrate. I just published my homesteading book and am so excited! I just want to tell the whole world. :)