I'm Going Bald!

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It's a good thing I decided not to enter the local County Fair's Chicken Beauty Pageant.  I am a mess!  I'm too embarrassed to show you my current picture, but here's a look at where my old feathers are right now!

Every morning when I wake up, there are few more feathers GONE---scattered all over the floor under our roost!  None of my other hen friends seem to be worried.  They assure me that I'll be fine--no permanent feather loss.   

Here is a picture of the Iron Maiden before she lost her feathers and one showing how she looks now. Poor thing, her tail looks like is has been chopped off!

 

Even Goofball is looking a little scruffy--white patches all over, dark spots on feathers.  She doesn't seem to be worried because there's a nice juicy grasshopper waiting to become her next treat.

I am very glad that the nice lady hasn't put mirrors in our house!  

The Beauty Pageant

It's time for the local chicken beauty pageant, commonly referred to as the County Fair.  Never having been in one before, I wasn't very interested in the details.  I decided to check out the rules, just for fun. 

The first rule says, "The Judge will use as a guide the American Standard of Perfection.  All birds will be judged by comparison."   I got pumped up after hearing that one.  Although I try not to be too vain, I felt sure I could win. The prize money for first place would almost pay for a big sack of chicken feed, or better yet, chicken scratch.  Yum! 

I didn't fully understand the next 2 rules---something about definition of terms and breeding pens. But rule #4, caused me to put the brakes on.  The words that struck fear in my heart were "pullorum-typhoid BLOOD TEST."  Yikes!  "BLOOD TEST" means needles, right?

I think I'll just stay home.  The nice lady can take pictures of the contestants and show them to me.  

 

My Friend, Sis

My hen friend that looks most like me is named Sis.  Those who don't know us get us mixed up--just like twins.  But really we're so different.  Here's Sis on the left and me on the right.  Can you believe that anyone would get us mixed up!

The other day I heard Sis squawking unusually loudly in the hen house.  We are very proud of ourselves when we lay an egg, and we let everyone know what we have done by squawking loudly.  But Sis sounded like she was either in pain or very, very proud of herself.  When I went into the house to check on her, look at what I saw!  That's my egg on the left, and hers on the right.

Here's what it looked like in the pan. 
(WARNING:  This is a very disturbing picture if you are a chicken.)

This may not be unusual to some of you, but for Sis, it's amazing, considering she almost died last winter.  I'll tell that story another day.