chicken drama

still didn't catch any groundhods. i guess i'm not too good at setting traps. maybe they don't like our compost, which is what i put in there to lure them in; i'll have to try something else....

but, we have at least one baby chick. he hatched yesterday. i went to check on the hen, and she was sitting on the eggs as usual; everything looked unchanged, so i was about to leave, when i noticed a tiny beak and a shiny black eye peeking at me from under the hen. i went in the house to get the girls and show them, but by the time we got back to the coop, the chick had gone all the way under the hen, and we couldn't see him anymore. this morning though, he was out walking around the coop, and we were able to see him really well. he's so sweet and small, all fuzzy, yellow with brown stripes. very exciting.

last night, we had guinea hen drama:
i counted them, and there were only 14, instead of 15. i also noticed that the water feeder was missing from the coop. i looked around the yard, and something white caught my eye in a bush. i checked it out, and it turned out to be the water feeder. i had no idea how it got there, but i tried to pull it out, and realized that it was attached to the missing guinea hen. at first, i thought that she was dead, she was all limp; but when i pulled harder, she started to squak and fight me. so now i had this guinea hen with her foot stuck through the water feeder hook, and frantically trying to get away from me.

i feel really bad seeing hurt animals. and often, i find when i try to help them, they panic and try to get away and in the process end up getting even more hurt. so it's really tricky.

so i grabbed the hen and tried to get the hook off her leg, but the leg was all swollen, and the best i could do was to detach the hook from the water feeder, so at least she didn't have this huge thing attached to her. i talked to her and tried to reassure her in my genlest voice, but she was really frightened and ran further into the bushes. i was not excited at the prospect of chasing a hurt hen through prickery bushes.

in the meantime, the rooster, who was freaking out, being very protective of the hens, came over to check out what was happening. i decided to leave the hen and rooster alone for a while, maybe she'd come out of the bushes by herself. i went in the house, and in a few minutes, i saw that she did come out and was trying to join the rest of the chickens. she could not walk on her hurt leg, so she flapped her wings in semi-flght, and then lay down. as soon as the rest of the pack moved, she'd have to flap again to join them, and it was clear that she was having a real hard time and could not keep up.

fortunately, at this point, shandra, my amazing neighbor, came out. she's the most capable person i've ever met, so everything went well after that. i felt so relieved to see her. she caught the hen, took the hook out of her leg, and checked her leg to see if it was broken or dislocated; then we made a resting place for her using an upside-down hamper with some rocks on top; we gave her water, food and some rescue remedy, and soon enough she seemed much calmer and was resting. we isolated her from the rest of the pack at night too, and already she seems much better today. i think we can let her out tomorrow, she seems really eager to join the rest of the pack.

and in praise of our rooster:
we have the best rooster in the whole world. he's quite small, but he is amazing. he's so protective and caring with the hens, and at the same time he's gentle and has never attacked anyone. some of my friends have big, aggressive roosters that don't even care for the hens all that well, and i told them to bring them over to check out our rooster, maybe they'll learn. anyway, yesterday, the rooster kept coming over to check on the hurt hen, you could tell he was really concerned, he kept circling around her and didn't want to leave her alone. at night, when we put her separate from the rest, you could tell he was very anxious and didn't want to go in the coop until she was there too. actually, all the hens, not just the rooster, seemed very concerned about the one who got hurt. it was very moving to see them.

so everything is well now, and i'm very grateful to shandra for all her help.

peace