Shaking her tail feather.

Here are the photos of dear little Shakira going from a swan to an ugly duckling. She has been going through her most extreme moult to date. The hens, like snakes shedding their skins, have a yearly moult when they lose their old feathers and replace them ready for the cold weather. Whilst they are going through the moult they don't lay eggs, putting their energy into producing new feathers instead. They won't win any prizes for best looking hens until they have emerged as fully feathered beauty queens in a few weeks time. Here is Shakira's journey.........and it's not finished yet.

The girls three weeks ago, beautiful and colourful.

 Luke says this looks like we've had an exploding chicken in the house! This is the start of Shakira's moult, she lost this amount of feathers overnight, falling onto the droppings board and spilling over onto the wood shavings.

 Here she starts losing her tail feathers, eventually she had one single tail feather, standing somewhat proudly upright like a conquering flag - before it dropped off too.

 Either feathers fell off her as she moved or there were stubborn downy feathers refusing to budge. Like baby teeth they clung on long after they should have fallen out.Oh, the indignity.

 Oven ready. This photo (clicked on will enlarge it) makes me wince, she looks like she needs a barcode and price tag on her.

 And now we have the recovery! Tiny little sheaths sprout up, the quill of the feather which will eventually grow into a lush feather.

 Oh blimey, now it is Buck Bucky's turn! Exploding chicken number 2.