DonyaQuick
Songster
I feel I should share my recent hen saddle fiasco, which is now resolved, but while it was ongoing it was just bizarre chaos.
I have a modest sized flock that includes a hen called Buddy. Buddy got what looked like tree sap in her back feathers a while back (I still have no idea how) and managed to pluck a bunch of sticky feathers out before I could intervene and laboriously clean the rest away. I guess the very slightly warming temperatures then got to her and she kept messing up the incoming feathers by being the squat queen with my cockerel brother boys, Junior and Monster. Now, I was very careful with the hen saddle process since none of my flock has seen one before. I did a lot of reading about what could go wrong and did this as a slow, very supervised process. I put the saddle on Buddy in the house yesterday and then took Junior inside to make sure he was cool with it in a setting where it was easy to intervene. That all went perfectly well, so I put the pair back out with everyone, with Buddy looking very fashionable. I sat out there for quite some time to make sure all was well and that everyone was happily hanging out and eating together before going back inside.
A couple minutes later, alarm calls erupted and hens were flapping everywhere. I didn't see anything outside the enclosure, so I opened the run door to go in and Monster vaulted out past me like he'd been shot out of a cannon. I didn't see anything inside the enclosure either, so I had to go catch Monster and shove him back inside (twice). So then I'm standing there in the run watching a line of of alarm-calling hens jogging around the perimeter all looking behind them - including Buddy near the end. Junior, who normally chomps my knee to tell me there's a problem, apparently just had no idea what was going on and had completely reverted to "I'm scared, hold me mommy" mode. Eventually I figured out that one or more hens at the front of the hen train must be afraid of the saddle (and therefore afraid of Buddy), while those at the back closer to Buddy were cool with Buddy and her saddle, but were still nervous and upset because the ones in front were upset.
It was one hen causing all that, Squishy. Took quite a bit of trial and error to find the perpetrator, but eventually I discovered that if I picked Squishy up and covered her head for a while, she stopped making noise and then so did everyone else shortly after. I guess Squishy somehow didn't notice the hen saddle for the entire half hour or more that I was sat out there with them all when it was first introduced. Meanwhile, everyone else was clearly cool with Buddy and her saddle. So, I have to assume that when Squishy sounded off at the saddle, everyone started looking for a problem vaguely over near Buddy and couldn't figure out what it was. And so...Squishy made sure everyone perpetually ran away from an invisible monster. Including my boys. And the invisible monster always followed them because it was actually Buddy, and Buddy was being sure to stay with the group while Squishy was trying to get away from Buddy.
It took another hour of me sitting with Squishy to get her to calm down about Buddy's saddle.
The flock is all calm this morning, but what a mess yesterday. And what gloriously brave rooster boys I have...apparently if they can't figure out what the problem is and don't have anything obvious to posture at like a cat or a hawk, one just turbo-nopes out the whole situation while the other clings to me like a baby and whimpers.
I have a modest sized flock that includes a hen called Buddy. Buddy got what looked like tree sap in her back feathers a while back (I still have no idea how) and managed to pluck a bunch of sticky feathers out before I could intervene and laboriously clean the rest away. I guess the very slightly warming temperatures then got to her and she kept messing up the incoming feathers by being the squat queen with my cockerel brother boys, Junior and Monster. Now, I was very careful with the hen saddle process since none of my flock has seen one before. I did a lot of reading about what could go wrong and did this as a slow, very supervised process. I put the saddle on Buddy in the house yesterday and then took Junior inside to make sure he was cool with it in a setting where it was easy to intervene. That all went perfectly well, so I put the pair back out with everyone, with Buddy looking very fashionable. I sat out there for quite some time to make sure all was well and that everyone was happily hanging out and eating together before going back inside.
A couple minutes later, alarm calls erupted and hens were flapping everywhere. I didn't see anything outside the enclosure, so I opened the run door to go in and Monster vaulted out past me like he'd been shot out of a cannon. I didn't see anything inside the enclosure either, so I had to go catch Monster and shove him back inside (twice). So then I'm standing there in the run watching a line of of alarm-calling hens jogging around the perimeter all looking behind them - including Buddy near the end. Junior, who normally chomps my knee to tell me there's a problem, apparently just had no idea what was going on and had completely reverted to "I'm scared, hold me mommy" mode. Eventually I figured out that one or more hens at the front of the hen train must be afraid of the saddle (and therefore afraid of Buddy), while those at the back closer to Buddy were cool with Buddy and her saddle, but were still nervous and upset because the ones in front were upset.
It was one hen causing all that, Squishy. Took quite a bit of trial and error to find the perpetrator, but eventually I discovered that if I picked Squishy up and covered her head for a while, she stopped making noise and then so did everyone else shortly after. I guess Squishy somehow didn't notice the hen saddle for the entire half hour or more that I was sat out there with them all when it was first introduced. Meanwhile, everyone else was clearly cool with Buddy and her saddle. So, I have to assume that when Squishy sounded off at the saddle, everyone started looking for a problem vaguely over near Buddy and couldn't figure out what it was. And so...Squishy made sure everyone perpetually ran away from an invisible monster. Including my boys. And the invisible monster always followed them because it was actually Buddy, and Buddy was being sure to stay with the group while Squishy was trying to get away from Buddy.
It took another hour of me sitting with Squishy to get her to calm down about Buddy's saddle.The flock is all calm this morning, but what a mess yesterday. And what gloriously brave rooster boys I have...apparently if they can't figure out what the problem is and don't have anything obvious to posture at like a cat or a hawk, one just turbo-nopes out the whole situation while the other clings to me like a baby and whimpers.
