Moult

Daft chicken has a bad habit of starting her moult in the midst of winter - she's lucky this year that it's not as cold as last year as she's gone even more extreme in feather-loss. The blue spiky bits you can see are the new feathers growing through - the platicy quill comes through first, then the feather grows through the end. Give her two or three weeks and she'll be looking magnificent with a new set of plumage...