I'm never failed to be amazed by mother nature. And when you work on the land and with animals, you really get a unique perspective. Reality stares back at your like a mirror. There's no vacuum sealed meat or pre-washed, chilled and transported cabbage - there's plant, animals and wonderful, glorious dirt.
MANY things amaze me; the speed that seed's germinate and the fact that flowers can track the sun across the sky, for example. Another thing that always gets me is the annual chicken moult. How is it that a hen can go from feathered, to bald, to porcupine and back to feathered so quickly?! I mean, YES - I KNOW it's biology, but isn't it marvellous?!
Autumn and moulting has seriously set my girls back in regards to laying. Of around 30 hens, I'm getting about six eggs a day. Actually, that's not that bad for this time of year. But I thought I'd show a few of my girls and how funny their moult is.
First up,here's Clumsy, my Chamois Poland frizzle. One day she was fine. The next she looked...well...like she'd gotten caught in an extractor fan!
This is what she normally looks like....
Then there's Goldie, the little Poland/Silkie cross. For MOST of last year, she looked a wreck until her pin feathers grew in. Then she looked like a hedgehog...
Until, VOILA, beautiful again!
Then there's Stumpy. Poor Stump is a case of 'when-genetics-go-wrong' but I couldn't bear to part with her despite her curled toes and funny shape. She has been bald for SO long - she couldn't get away from the roosters far enough and they used to have their wicked way with her. However, having cut my cockerel numbers significantly, she's moulting and growing in new feathers. She'll look marvellous....though there's a little way to go as yet.
And finally, this little hen is an ex-battery hen I rescued in June along with four others. Sadly, I only have two left - these were 'free range' hens but really were in an awful condition. As you can see from the pictures, just one was fully feathered - the others nearly all had bald, scabbed backs and little tail.
It has taken MANY months of care, working, de-lousing and nurture...but we're getting there!
I'm utterly thrilled the girls are growing their feathers, and it's always a marvel to me. Mother Nature is SO cool!