Fuss and Feathers

   Once a year, chickens molt. This is when chickens loose all their feathers, then grow them back. This doesn't happen all at once, but the chickens do end up looking scruffy.

   This week, Sleepy started molting.

  

   One thing that goes along with molting is pinfeathers. When the chickens are growing feathers, pinfeathers form. They are kind of hard to explain, but they look terrible. Imagine porcupine quills. 

   On Sleepy's neck, right where that gap in her feathers, are pinfeathers. You can only see this if she moves a certain way, which made it hard to get a good picture. 

You can see them pretty well here...

Here is a zoomed in version. 

   I know... Really gross looking...

   It is going to get worse before it gets better. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, however. After chickens molt and their feathers are all new, they are just gorgeous! 

   See you next week!

Beauty Is In the Eye of the Beholder

   Many people have seen chicks. Lots of people have seen chickens. But, unless you have raised chickens, you probably haven't seen their "teenage stage".

   They go in cute...

They come out beautiful...

But in the middle, well, all you can do in wait...

Pin feathers (a growing feather surrounded by a feather shaft) start to poke though the chick fluff.

You can see this in Nutmeg's tail (above).

Sleepy might have been the worst. It was... not pretty.

Sweet little Daisy. Her molt was not as bad as the other's for some reason.

Oh, Piper and those big puffy cheeks...

Wow sorry... A lot of pictures in this one. But, are there ever too many pictures of chicks?

Have a good week!

Birds of a Feather

   One of the things I picked my breeds for was beauty. I loved seeing their colors coming in! Now that they are here, they are yours to enjoy!

Speckles

Finally her name makes sense!

 Lizzy

Lizzy and her beautiful barred stripes.

Raven

Her beautiful feathers are iridescent in the sun!

Sleepy

Sleepy has beautiful iridescent black and brown feathers. 

Daisy

Gorgeous bright yellow feathers

Olive

A rather plain if elegant red

Piper

Piper's colors were a surprise because of her breed. Easter Eggers do not have a standard color. She turned out to be gold and black; fading into each other. Her head is all gold and tail is all black. Beautiful!

Nutmeg

I think she might be the prettiest! I adore her coloring!

I hope you enjoyed this and I will see you next week!