I’ve seen the signs the past couple of weeks but it really didn’t register. \u00a0It’s molting season.<\/p>\n
It all started when I noticed a couple of feathers on the ground when I went outdoors to do “Bedtime for Birdies.” \u00a0I really didn’t give it much thought. \u00a0It was just a passing…notice.<\/p>\n
Over the past couple of days, however, the amount of feathers and the variation of color of feathers, well, the hens are molting.<\/p>\n
One of the “Rovers,” my Black Australops, has a naked neck already, and the “Daryls,” my Rhode Island Reds, \u00a0have naked butts. \u00a0Things are getting serious, I’d say!<\/p>\n
Egg production has been down a bit, too.<\/p>\n
The only hens I have not seen a decrease in egg production and evidence of molting is in the EE’s, the Easter Eggers. \u00a0These are the babies I had in the house over the Winter. \u00a0They are young and I don’t know if they will molt in the Fall or in the Spring. \u00a0They have turned out to be very good layers and sweet hens.<\/p>\n
Peter? \u00a0Nope. \u00a0No molting. \u00a0I don’t even know if Roosters molt. \u00a0I’ll have to Google that later on today. \u00a0He has been a real stinker, though. \u00a0So, maybe the changing of the seasons is having an affect on him, too? \u00a0Google is my friend. \u00a0I will find out today.<\/p>\n
Loki, the bunny, is molting, too! \u00a0HA! \u00a0I bet you thought this was only about chickens! \u00a0Wrong!!!<\/p>\n
I had noticed a LOT of bunny fur all over that back room. \u00a0I was concerned that there was something wrong with Loki, so, again, I turned to Google. \u00a0Turns out that rabbits molt twice a year. \u00a0I did not know that.<\/p>\n
My back room now has a smelly “Chatty Cathy,” (the new baby chick), and a molting rabbit. \u00a0That back room may be beyond repair. \u00a0I dunno. \u00a0I’ll be sooooo glad when that baby chick is big enough to go outdoors.<\/p>\n
It’s not too cold for her to go outdoors. \u00a0It’s just that she’s too small to be out there. \u00a0She can easily walk through all of the fencing I have out there for the big chickens. \u00a0That means my cats or the hawks could pick her off if she walked through the fencing…and believe you me, she would, too!<\/p>\n
So, anyway, yes, it is molting season. \u00a0Bunny and chicken! \u00a0Fortunately, Paxton and the cats are greedily keeping their fur to themselves. \u00a0For these small things we will be grateful! \u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve seen the signs the past couple of weeks but it really didn’t register. \u00a0It’s molting season. It all started when I noticed a couple of feathers on the ground when I went outdoors to do “Bedtime for Birdies.” \u00a0I really didn’t give it much thought. \u00a0It was just a passing…notice. Over the past couple […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,15,9,14,6,8,5,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2610,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609\/revisions\/2610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}