Where, Oh Where Has My Black Hen Gone?

Before 

They've come out by fistfuls.  Big, black, handsome Nina Simone Hen has lost her feathers.

A small token of the feathers
Nina has shed in the last two days.

That a hen would molt at this time of year is not a newsworthy item, facts be known. For some reason I thought Nina was immune.  When the other hens stopped laying, she did her best to keep up with an egg every other day or so.

Bare wing flesh showing today.

Then the bag of layer pellets ran out. The replacement sack seemed different, and I blamed the new feed saying it wasn't high enough in protein, saying maybe it was pullet feed instead of layer feed, saying I'll take this stuff back and get the real thing. My eyeballs bulged as I hefted the 50 pound bag out of the metal can (Things I get to do today) to inspect the tag:  Layer pellets.  Well, fine. And now the fistfuls of feathers.  It isn't the feed.  My big, shiny black hen is molting just like the rest.


Well, hurry up and get it over with.  Snow is flying.  You'll need your new coat soon.  I'll keep the heat lamp on to tide you over.

Dresses, a Bit Ragged and Torn

Holes and tatters in Nora Jones' garment.

They've lasted a year of 24/7 wear.  New ones are on the way.  My girls hope to look swell again for the holidays (probably not by Thanksgiving), and their new dresses will be the perfect thing.

Katy Perry Chicken looking far worse than last year's
Bad Hair months. 

Pin feathers will give way in a shower of milky dust to lush, strong feathers that will keep the girls warm for the winter season.




Today's rain has kept the hens in the shelter of the coop nearly all day. They're grateful to be loved, chicken pets instead of commercial turkeys.

And though one of the Things I get to do today is lay one of the hens to rest layered in straw and under the damp earth, I'm glad they are my pets as well. And Queen Latifah Hen, though now gone, no longer has to deal with faulty kidneys. All is well on the city farm.

From Bad to Worse

I'm starting to feel sorry for the rich and famous.  Having all of ones worst moments investigated and published, and even more horrible, having the most difficult and private times documented with glossy photographs for the whole world to see has to be the pits.  (I'm even considering feeling sorry for you, Kim.)

Famous chicken-person, Miss Katy Perry Chicken, thinks one of the Things I get to do today is making life miserable for her.  As you all know from the recent post "Chicken Hair," hens have long-term unglamorous periods called molting.  It was photo documented that she had lost a whole chunk of her "hair" just above her neck in the back.  And today I (the paparazzi) am following her around the hen pen, popping out from behind plants and structures to catch a gosh-awful shot of her latest disaster hair-do.  With only pin feathers covering her whole head and neck and closely resembling a turkey vulture, she is definitely sporting the latest hair-don't.

Katy turning away from the camera  to escape the glare of publicity,
her scrappy-looking head and neck clearly visible.

Ducking behind the crowd of other better-and-more-sleekly-coifed girls

"Sparse" they called it in The Times.

The Observer noted it was "prickly."

"No comment" pled The Herald.

The Oregonian: "We've seen better do's.  Look's like she's seen better days."

But for the fashion conscious, like Katy's we know, this one included, there is hope.
Right in the middle of the back of her head are two or three feathers that have
sprung loose from their tight, pin structure.  A week from now her head will
be covered with brand-new, luxurious feathers.  Forget Paris, London or New York.
This is the latest look.

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?