New Feathers for Minerva

After a few really cold days of being feather-less, Minerva has started growing new feathers. Her head has new little feathers and if you look really closely, you can see the tips of the feathers that have just started "feathering" on her wing, above the couple big, old feathers she has. She has been huddling in a corner of straw in the coop and so I've been letting the hens out more than usual so she can find a sunny patch to sit in. I bet she'll be even warmer tomorrow.

Yesterday, I tried holding Minerva to warm her up, but she squawked loose and felt like a porcupine! It was quite an odd feeling. Normally, the hens are so soft and fluffy.

Minerva, what happened?!

Doesn't it look like there is something terribly wrong with this hen? The weather has turned quite cool and most of the other hens are nearly done with their molting process and here is Minerva in the worst of her molt! She lost nearly ALL her feathers and has a bunch of new quills coming in, though the are very narrow and just look like hedgehog spikes. In this photo, she is happily eating carrot tops.

I learned that during the molting process, the hens need extra protein in order to produce their new feathers. I've been giving them lots of sunflower seeds and pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds) that I cleaned out of the pantry. Yogurt and cottage cheese are also good sources of protein.

With the cold weather and the hens molting, we often only get 1 egg a day so I bought eggs this week for baking-- I baked a ton this week for Thanksgiving and Coby's birthday! I think only Ginger and Louise are laying right now.