3 Little Indians

 Sunday night, Henny Penny passed away.

At first she seemed to be improving,but Sunday she was quiet and lethargic.

I knew it was going to be the end.

 I buried her down in the pasture in the "Pet Cemetery"

(really, there's a horse, 3 dogs, 2 cats, 2 rabbits and a turtle there)

She was the coolest chicken I've ever met

and I doubt I'll meet another one as cool as she.

I'm now down to three chickens:

1 Speckled Sussex, 1 Jersey Giant and Zombie who is a Brown Leghorn I think.

Zombie is the only one old enough to lay eggs and she isn't.

I've been checking them daily for signs of illness and so far so good.  

Though part of me right now wonders if it's all worth it. 

I now have 5 chickens to replace and I'm guessing the cost could

be $50+.

I'm supposed to be heading to the Maryland Poultry Swap in a week and a half,

but my heart just isn't in it.

The Ongoing Saga of Henny Penny

I seriously feel like I'm in a chicken soap opera.

It's been a rough 24 hours with the chickens.

I noticed something wrong with one of the Jersey Giants
yesterday evening but because of a scouting event I was required to attend,
there wasn't anything I could do.
At 10pm when I got home,
I found the sick pullet near the end
and she died in my arms in the rain by the light of my head lamp.
It was at that moment that I discovered Henny Penny also showing signs of illness.
This meant a sleepless night for me
as I researched the possible causes (respiratory infection)
can treatment.
In the morning, Penny was looking worse.
I wasn't sure she'd even make it long enough for me to treat her.
So I ran out to TSC to get what I needed
and set up the "chicken hospital" in my parents' basement.

When I got to the house at lunch,
she was thankfully alive.
I took her inside and began administering the drugs.
Ever give a chicken a shot?
You need at least 2 more hands.
Penny promptly bit me once I finished with the injection.
Then I had to pry her beak open to give her some Nutri-Boost.
The Nutri-Boost is supposed to help with dehydration, boost the immune system and help the antiboptic work more effectively.
I think I wore more of the foul smelling and looking stuff than I managed to get into her mouth.
When I was through and put her back in her cage,
she immediately started eating.

I'm hoping that's a positive sign.
I get to give her 2 more injections today.
I'm hoping to see signs of improvement this evening.

With the General Population

This past Friday I moved Henny Penny into the Chicken Coop

but kept her segregated from the other chickens.

The chickens could see each other through the wire,

but they couldn't get to each other.

Last night I went ahead and removed the partition.

I moved around some things to give Penny some places to get away from the bigger hens.

I left the cat carrier in there so she has a good hiding place,

and I added the hanging cabbage that is supposed to help distract the chickens.

It doesn't really do anything so far.

Penny is the only one I've seen pecking at it.

She wasn't very happy with me releasing her into the general population.

She's the new girl on the block so she has to go through the whole

pecking order crap. 

I checked on her last night and this morning.

She slept in the coop

but was more skittish this morning about being with everyone.

Hopefully she'll be okay this time.

Supervisory Chicken

Yesterday evening I decided to work on painting the coop.

The wind was blowing pretty hard so spray painting the portions

that need to be sprayed was out of the question,

but it was a good time to get a coat or two on the rest of it.

I brought along Henny Penny so she could get some exercise,

but all she seemed to want to do is make sure I was doing my job properly.

I had to lay on my stomach on a piece of cardboard to get the areas

located under the coop.

Penny was especially curious about why I was doing that.

Eventually she decided she just needed to sit with me.

I wish she'd try to go make nice with the other young chickens,

but she always sticks by me when I'm out in the yard with her.

It was quite the challenge painting while trying to keep a curious chicken out of the paint.

I did manage to get at least one coat on pretty much everything

(except 2 boards I couldn't reach).

The area under the coop is finished

as I decided if I had to crawl under there I only wanted to do it once.

It needs a second coat

and I need to spray paint the wood that has the wire attached to it,

but other than that it's finished. 

Chicken Hospital

Henny Penny is back at the "chicken hospital"

in my hallway.

My mom called me Wednesday evening to say she was pretty sure

one of the new pullets had been pecked.

So I rushed over to assess the damage.

Penny was up and moving around, 

but a large area of her back end was bleeding

and she was missing quite a few feathers.

I also notice that she had her right eye half closed.

I wasn't really sure she would even make it.

 Yesterday she was up and around and eating and drinking normally.

Her eye is still closed

but she felt good enough to hop out of the cage and follow me to the kitchen

as I filled her water.

I think if we can keep her wounds from becoming infected,

she'll be okay. 

She's getting a small amount of aspirin in her water for pain, 

and I'm applying triple antibiotic ointment to her wounds to keep

the wound moist and hopefully prevent infection.

 

Access Denied

I used to let the hens wander in the veggie garden thinking

they'd help with the bug population.

However, I learned pretty quick

that all they seem to do is eat my cabbage and kale

and scratch up newly planted seeds.

So this past Tuesday evening,

I put up a fence.

They weren't happy. 

But perhaps this year I'll be able to try out 

my homemade sauerkraut recipe.

And in other news, 

I now have 2 chickens who think sitting on me is fun to do.

Henny Penny (on the left) and Royal Farms (named by the 8 year old)

both came over to visit.  

RF learned that getting a scratch under the chin is pretty nice.

They enjoyed sitting on my arm.

Since they're the closest thing I'll ever have to a hawk,

I'm thinking I should get a couple of those falconry hoods for them to wear.

(a quick chicken update: Penny was pecked pretty severely yesterday evening and is once again in the house in the old brooder.  It's a little touch and go but she made it through the night and was up eating and drinking)

Henny Penny

Meet Henny Penny.

She is the pullet I got to replace the rooster I ended up having 

in the group I had been raising.

While the person I got her from said she was the same age as the other 3 pullets I had, 

she was at least 2 weeks younger than they were.

So when I put them all in the new coop, 

she got picked on more because she was the smallest.

This resulted in her getting pecked to the point of bleeding.

Because chickens are drawn to the color red,

little Henny Penny would have been pecked to death because of the color of her blood.

So she had to come back home and stay until healed.

She got her name from this book that I loved as a kid.

It's about a chicken named Henny Penny 

(seen on the cover in the stylish head scarf)

who gets hit in the head with an acorn and thinks the sky is falling

and along with her friends Gander Lander, Goosey Lucy and Turkey Lurkey

rushes off to tell the king.

They meet up with Foxy Loxy who tells them about a "short cut"

in the hopes of getting some dinner.

I won't spoil the ending.

Anyway, I thought the name was a good fit

and so did my son who thinks she is similar to the color of a Penny.

So Penny stayed inside for another week while her wounds healed 

and her feathers started growing back.

This past Sunday, I finally put her out with the rest of the girls.

I was working in the garden so I was close by 

to monitor her and make sure she didn't get injured again. 

As I worked in the garden, 

every now and then I would hear chirping and see Penny come running to me

looking for me to pick her up and give her a scratch under the chin.

She even came and sat with me in the sun when I took a break.

Needless to say, 

she's my favorite.