Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Dear Victoria is moulting and as you can see she is looking rather scruffy and somewhat sorry for herself. She started to moult at the weekend and lost an awful lot of feathers very quickly and then, just as quickly, new ones started to grow. She has a massive bare patch on her shoulder which as the second photos shows is now full of those delightful 'pin' feathers: the start of the true feathers coming through where all you can really see are the nice thick quills from which the actual feathers will begin to emerge.
As explained in previous posts, moulting is a totally natural process and the bird's way of shedding old out-of-condition feathers and growing new and better ones. It usually happens in the autumn and it is also usual for a moulting bird to stop laying eggs, so that all their energies can go into re-growing the feathers. Victoria actually laid her last egg back on 11th October - turkeys don't tend to lay at all through the late autumn/winter, so Victoria now has a good few months to get back in condition and then be ready to start laying again in early spring!!
The weather is currently very wet and Victoria is spending most of her days inside - very sensible! It is actually quite warm as well mind you, so when she does venture out we are not worried she will get too cold. We could however, do with a bit of cold: the current wet, warm conditions are perfect for bugs and bacteria - not what we want at all!!