Once or twice a year, my birds decide to drop all their feathers and grow new ones. It’s molting time, and it’s messy.  There are feathers everywhere, and the girls look a bit haggard. They also stop laying eggs during the molt, bummer! One way to help them move through the process a bit faster is to up the protein. Scatter a few handfuls of cat kibble in with their regular feed to help.

Anyway, the molt  reminded me of last year’s family vacation to Jersey Shore. We visited a small zoo. It was strapped for resources, but they obviously cared about their animals and were working hard to make a nice environment for them. The most memorable animal? Not the lion (although his roar was awesome!). The honor didn’t go to an mpressive wild animal, it went to Henry, the rooster. Check this guy out:

Apparently I was not the only one taken aback by poor Henry. They had this sign posted on the fence around his pen:

Enjoy this video from Urban Chicken Advocates of Nashville!

A Neighborhood Case Study: People and Chickens Co-Existing! REALLY! from UCAN on Vimeo.

The great chicken nemesis, the opossum, found a way into the coop this evening. Fortunately for my ladies, she was a very young predator. She did manage to frighten my birds into a cackling frenzy, chasing them off their perch and into the run. Scott found her, desperately clutching the wire at the top of the run, trying to find a way out. My years volunteering for a wildlife rehab prepped me for opossum removal (although she was fast and wiggly and I lost her on the first grab). I finally got her, and set her free.

Opossums eat chickens. We’ll have to review the coop in the daylight tomorrow to find the breach. In the meantime, I locked the door to the roosting area. Unfortunately, the opossum will return, and she’ll quadruple in size.