Chicken Hair

I seem to be losing chickens lately.  Sometimes it is a slow decline in health, and then the chicken is gone (Nora #2).   Sometimes it is a hungry, wild critter, and then the chicken is gone (Gwyneth).  Sometimes it is one or two or twenty feathers at a time (Katy), and then:  the chicken is molting and will, eventually, grow back.  In the mean time, in the Things I get to do today is "find a new hairdresser for Katy Chicken."

Beautiful Katy with her pretty, pointy tail

Miss Katy Perry Chicken came to live with us nearly three weeks ago now.  Dark hair, white skin, red lips--I was certain this chicken was a Katy.  She was glamorous and gorgeous as well as sweet in voice and style.

I was startled a few days after her arrival by a stunning black and white feather in the hen pen that seemed to be hers.  Several days later there were puffs of feathers in every corner that looked more like her than any of the other hens.  Her tail was the first to go. What was once a proud exclamation point at the backside of her fluffy silhouette was now only a question mark, a short one at that.

Where, oh where has my pretty tail gone?

Looks like someone took a big "chop" out of the back of her neck "hair"
 leaving an ungraceful gap between "hair line" and shoulders.  Pin
feathers are visible behind her ear and at the base of her neck.

Tail feathers are not needed to keep a hen warm so I didn't give it much thought.  But when I returned from being out of town this past week, Katy looked like she'd had an appointment with a demented hairdresser resulting in a bad hair day that will, no doubt, drag on for several weeks.






Fortunately for this Katy, she doesn't care how she looks, though I'm sure she can feel a chilly draft at the back of her neck.  I may need to knit Miss Katy Perry Chicken a little scarf until the pin feathers grow out and can keep her neck warm again--put that on the list of Things I get to do today.  A red one, don't you think?