Moult

The Girls have been moulting for some time now.  The first one to start was little Odie,  the shyer of the two new Araucana.

Poor little thing was already being dominated by the big girls, and then her moult made it even easier for the bullies.

And now everyone is moulting,  everyone  is cranky, and there are feathers everywhere.

About a month ago, I started to leave the door dividing  door open over night.   I started by just leaving the top open, and then I started to leave the bottom half open as well.  Each night I'd go and check that Littlees weren't being prevented from going to bed.

We had some interesting shenanigans after about a week or so.  I'd find a different older girl in with the Littlees each night.  Then I'd find a couple of them.   Sometimes the visiting hen would be making it difficult for the Littlees to access their coop, so I'd hoik them out.

Big Brave Ollie

One night, I found Ollie (Olga, the friendliest of the Littlees) in with the Old Girls!  She was back with the Littlees the next night,  then in with the Old Girls again.

And then FiFi (Ophelia, a palomino Vorwerk) was in  with the old girls.  This was a definite shock.  She has vision problems, and is right at the bottom of the pecking order, so I was really taken aback to see her in the "wrong" coop.

Odie, hiding

Odie has not tried to go in with the big girls.  She's hides in the nest box of her coop every night, hunkered down so as not to draw attention to herself.  I think it's the discomfort of moulting that's doing it. She hides under a chair when the girls converge outside.  I hope she gets over her moult soon.     

Luckily, one or more of the big girls sleep in the coop as well, but on the roosting bars.     It may be that  they are keeping her company, but I doubt it.  It's more likely that the mass moult means that everyone wants a little bit of space around themselves,  and they prefer to decamp to the next door coop for comfort.

 I took some quick snaps this morning, here are some of them:

Elisabeth, Fay, Odie,Ollie, Fleur, Fifi. Others are out of shot