I swear it looks like there was a fox in the chicken run last night. There wasn’t, or we’d have no chickens left, but the floor is covered in feathers.
Barbara, always our most flighty and timid bird, seems to be following Margot’s lead and shedding her feathers, and now there are little curls of white all over the place.
This could explain our slowly declining egg production, which has taken a hit this month. It could be down to the shortening days (the nights are already officially longer than the days now) but I’m not so sure; I really don’t think they’ll have noticed that yet.
Everything else has remained the same: food, water, environment and vegetable scraps.
Perhaps they’re telling us it’s time to start looking for a few new hens to keep them company.
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If your chickens are moulting, have you checked them for mites? Apparently they are particularly virrulent this year. If you have them you’ll need to get some mite powder – for the chickens, and Jeys Fluid for the hen house. I hope this helps.
There don’t seem to be any mites, and they’re not stressed. Fortunately we have an Omlet Eglu Cube so it is easy for us to check all of the corners and crevices, which we do when we clean them out every week.
I think this is just a case of the poor girls (or Barbara in particular) going through the annual moult. What a time to get it. Two months earlier and it would have been quite pleasant, but right now with things starting to get cold I think her chickeny knees could start knocking.