Tossed salads & scrambled eggs

I sure don't have a clue to the meaning of the lyrics of the "Fraser" theme song, but around here it's what the girls have been getting for breakfast.

Oh my how they love their eggs! Hard boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, deviled eggs, eggs Florentine, a little egg shells all crumbled up ~ well, you get the idea. I just never feed raw eggs to my hens. There is not a raw-egg eater in the bunch, and I hope to keep it that way.

I have increased their protein intake because of this poor little girl. Yes, Beatrice is molting. Isn't she a sight? It seems like she dropped nearly all of her feathers overnight. For the first few days she was quite embarrassed. However, several days of scrambled eggs in the morning seemed to ease her emotional trauma. And mine.

When a chicken molts, they stop laying eggs. Conventional hen wisdom tells us that this is because all the nutrients needed to produce eggs are used instead to produce new feathers. A feather is 85% protein, so an increase in protein intake should help them through their molt. According to Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens ~ my Dr. Spock for my feathered babies ~ the best layers molt early and fast. Bea is a good example of that. On the other hand, the poorer layers molt early and slowly. Eleanor, my Barred Rock, slowly molted in late summer and she still has not resumed laying. I am hoping that the increased protein helps. Pretty as she is, I don't need another non-producing diva.

I think Beatrice is grateful for the new item on the breakfast menu, as she posed for this portrait. How can I not love a face like that?