Are You Molting?

All the cool kids are doing it:

Alice, the Queen of Molt

You remember Alice, yes? She is one of the original chickens, a consistent layer and a beautiful black hen with green undertones. Beautiful.

 

Certainly you remember her now, right?

Well - she is molting. And whenever I see her, I can't help but laugh. 

She is pathetic looking. She reminds me of a crazy bag lady. Or - a meth head. The Lovey and I are watching Breaking Bad, so the meth connection is an obvious one. 

She'll be her old self in no time, but until then, I am guaranteed a good giggle.

No, they are just molting.....

Yes, they look sick. Diseased. Sometimes even pretty naked. But no, they are just molting.

Once a year a chicken molts. They loose their feathers, starting at the head, and grow new ones. Because all their energy is put into making new feathers, we get no eggs.

Let's play a little game. It's called molting or not molting? Get ready, get set, go!

If you said molting, molting, not molting, well… you win the gold star for today! 

The last photo is the back of Lucy, our low chicken on the totem pole. You remember Lucy. We did a post on her here. She is picked on by the flock and was the, *a-hum* 'object of desire' of James, the rooster. By the end of the summer, her back was bare. Now look at her! Beautiful.