The Ugly Hen

Yesterday afternoon I happened upon a terrifically ugly Aracauna hen right next to the chicken tractor that is full of the chicks that we hatched in our incubator.  She is normally a pretty hen that has beautiful smoky gray color to her feathers.  She was running around trying to evade me and as I got closer, I could see why.  The old girl was just ugly.  What little feathers she did have were rough and unruly.  She had no feathers in some places and you could see her pink skin.  In other places, she had pin feathers sticking straight out.  What's going on with the ol' girl?

Ugly Aracauna Hen

The Aracauna hen is molting.  That's why she's uglier than sin.  Just like in Autumn you see the trees shedding their leaves, during the molt, the chicken, once a year, loses her feathers and replaces them with new ones.  As the days get shorter, it prompts the chickens to begin molting.  The long, hot days of summer has made all the hens' feathers dull and faded looking.  The molt will cause all these feathers to fall out and they'll be replaced by shiny, healthy feathers.  Fun Fact I learned on the Internet: An average chicken has about 8,500 feathers.

Feathers are mostly protein, so during a molt, the chicken has to make a decision: To use the protein intake to grow new feathers or to lay eggs.  She can't do both. This is why we can always count on fewer eggs in the Fall as the days shorten and the chickens begin molting.  But it's not only hens that molt - roosters molt, too.

The Molt

I know she looks weird, but the hard coating on her pin feathers will fall off and the underlying feathers will unfurl and pretty soon she won't run around looking hideous in the pasture.