Not sure if this is the right place for this question, but here it is.....
On Sat, we got our first snowstorm of the season, about a foot of heavy wet sticky snow fell. During the night Sat/Sun am, the trees were snapping like toothpicks all around us & the transformers were popping left & right sending what looked like lightning flashes into the sky.
The girls all came out Sun am & were less than pleased w/ seeing the white stuff again but they were out under the coop during the day. At one point, the roof of the run started to collapse under the weight of the snow & in doing so, one of the support cables came out of the post & probably sounded like a gunshot. All the girls ran in the coop & were reluctant to come out for a while. Monday morning I go out to bring them breakfast & when I opened the coop door, it was like someone had taken a feather pillow & shredded it all over the coop, feathers were EVERYWHERE! There is no way for a predator to get them, they are locked up @ night. All girls look ok, no visible injuries or anything obvious. Why would there be so many feathers???? would the stress of the past few days cause one of them to molt so extremely? (all the feathers are the same color, so I'm assuming it's only one girl who's losing them) The feathers are off(i think) of the lowest girl in the pecking order, would the others take their stress out on her & pluck her in the night??? Very weird!!
On Sat, we got our first snowstorm of the season, about a foot of heavy wet sticky snow fell. During the night Sat/Sun am, the trees were snapping like toothpicks all around us & the transformers were popping left & right sending what looked like lightning flashes into the sky.
The girls all came out Sun am & were less than pleased w/ seeing the white stuff again but they were out under the coop during the day. At one point, the roof of the run started to collapse under the weight of the snow & in doing so, one of the support cables came out of the post & probably sounded like a gunshot. All the girls ran in the coop & were reluctant to come out for a while. Monday morning I go out to bring them breakfast & when I opened the coop door, it was like someone had taken a feather pillow & shredded it all over the coop, feathers were EVERYWHERE! There is no way for a predator to get them, they are locked up @ night. All girls look ok, no visible injuries or anything obvious. Why would there be so many feathers???? would the stress of the past few days cause one of them to molt so extremely? (all the feathers are the same color, so I'm assuming it's only one girl who's losing them) The feathers are off(i think) of the lowest girl in the pecking order, would the others take their stress out on her & pluck her in the night??? Very weird!!
