My Faverolle hens have started their fall molt. I can tell because Jade always looks like something took a chunk of her neck and gave her a good shake. Molting isn’t pretty.

On the plus side, this has allowed me to identify her as Jade. All three remaining Faverolles have removed their colored leg bands in the past couple years, and I know Seashell by sight, but Jade and Schmoo are harder to tell apart, except at molting. Jade is the only one that sheds all her neck feathers at once. Schmoo kept her leg band on the longest. None of the three lay eggs anymore. They are over six years old.