It’s that time of year when the ladies go through the process of molting. Their feathers fall out by the handful, and they grow a new shiny set of feathers. For some ladies, it’s a gradual process and they don’t look too much the worse for it, but some ladies look downright ridiculous for several weeks. It’s not just their appearance that is sad, but I think they actually feel a bit sad too. The ladies going through the worst molts tend to lurk around the outskirts of the flock and some even hide inside the coop until their feathers have grown back. For a couple of weeks I saw Twitchy walking backward while ducking her head down as if she was trying to back out of some awful prickly sweater that someone had subjected her to. There are a lot of bare chicken butts to be seen scurrying around the chicken pasture, and I can’t help but try to stifle a laugh as I stalk them with my camera and try to capture the worst offenders. Here are some of my favorite photos from this year, and there were some good ones from last year’s molt too.