Now that the girls have mostly lost their old plumage, they are busy growing their winter fashions. Maude looks much the same, a lovely caramel colour dotted with black and white. She has begun to preen and strut again, obviously thinking that she looks like the cats pyjamas. Mabel is going through a more radical image change.
The tips of a millefleur pekin's feathers are supposed to be white, so it's no great surprise that the first burst of quills have left Mabel looking like she's been through a bad shock. Her head is almost completely white, as is her chest. All indications are that she will have a lot more white in her markings than she has had previously. The others eye her with suspicion. Who is this new, pale leader? Mabel herself seems to spend a remarkable amount of time preening her new wing feathers, as if she can't quite believe that these odd coloured feathers belong to her.
She has, however, returned to flattening the others periodically, just to remind them who's boss.
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