Feathered Friend Friday

Welcome to our series "Feathered Friend Friday." Every Friday I write a post with interesting facts, photos, or funny stories about our chickens and guineas. If you need to catch up, you'll find all the Feathered Friend Friday posts here.    

Last Sunday I spent a lot of time outside because fall had finally arrived. I was hanging out with the chickens for a while after I let them out of the coop, just watching and observing to make sure everyone seemed to be acting like their normal selves. I do this every morning just to be certain I can notice changes early on and detect if anyone has an injury or signs of illness. They all looked so pretty with the fallen leaves around so I had to snap a few shots.

I mentioned here that Buttercup had started molting a few weeks ago, but her molt has been very light. She really hasn't lost many feathers at all. Poor Jobin is another story. Here she is looking her beautiful, fluffy self last weekend.

And here she is yesterday, only two days after I first noticed feathers falling off her.

She only has one lone tail feather left (which I'm sure will be going soon) and her bottom, chest, and belly are pretty bare. She's in the porcupine stage of her new pin feathers just breaking through the skin. I've read this is painful for them, so I'm not petting or picking her up right now. It's pretty sad because she is visibly depressed at the moment. It happens with the heavy molters. They are in pain from the new feathers poking through and to make it worse, they look horrible, too! I'm going to be giving her some extra protein over the next few weeks to help her feather production along. She is going to look so gorgeous with her bright new feathers!

~Tammy

This post shared with Camera Critters, Farmgirl Friday and Farm Photo Friday