IMG_2005Sorry for another quick-post… but I have an work event in Tucson that I must attend.  So, I just wanted to quickly share a bit about molting. Chickens tend to molt during the fall and early winter… some wait way long and are uncomfortably cold in the later part of the winter.  We had one, Imen, who molted in the middle of the summer, which was unusual. Right now we have three that are in mid molt. It’s pretty funny when they start – they just have bunches of feathers flying off everywhere… the nakeder they get the more you can see their new feathers coming in… then they start to look like Hedgewig (that’s my pet hedgehog).  During this time, they generally stop laying because, as you can imagine, it takes a lot out of them. You really can’t do too much to help them through except to make sure that they have a good source of protein -hopefully not eggs- and that they are being kept warm by the other feathered friends. We have two now that are staying in the nesting boxes at night; I guess they feel more comfortable there. To me, the process of growing in the new feathers always looks somewhat painful. I certainly hope not. Molting happens across many bird species; some of our doves are molting (at least that’s what we hope is happening) and we’re just hoping that their feathers grow in quickly.

As I said, it’s a quick update today. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Starting Sunday we will be having guests for a week, so hopefully there will be some fun photos and things to talk about. Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!

Today’s Weather: Seemed a bit warmer than the preceding couple of days. But just now I received a NOAA Weather Message: Freeze Watch for our area, Saturday night through Sunday morning and Sunday night through Monday morning. So, we’ll be busy covering trees and shrubs and water pipes! Currently, though, it is 76° at 2:49 p.m.

Egg Report: We haven’t collected all the eggs yet today, but so far the tally  today is 5 chicken eggs, and 2 ducks. We can update it later

Gratefulness: I don’t like the two Gratefulness items today: what about your body are you grateful for… I guess I’m going to say eyes, so I can see the beauty that has been placed before me. What knowledge are you grateful for: the knowledge that I am loved and forgiven- it keeps me plugging along; trying to live up to that.