- Mar 6, 2012
- 1
- 0
- 60
I have 10 chickens, and last Thursday, one disappeared. We count them every night and “Plucky” was missing. We looked around the farm everywhere, even inside the water pipes and in the most unusual places because Plucky is an adventurer. She hardly hangs out with the “others”…she is the rooster’s favorite and she knows it. She sleeps next to him and pecks at anyone who dares to try to take her place, but during the day, she’s gone, she wanders alone and comes back in the afternoon.
Thursday night she didn’t come back and I had a bad feeling about it. We went out with flashlights, but nothing. Next day I looked everywhere, I had hope that she go trapped somewhere and needed help, so I kept looking for the next days but nothing. Nights where very cold and rainy, so in bed I was thinking, well, even if she is somewhere, how can she survive this weather? All I could think was someone stole and ate her…maybe a Hawk? Maybe a dog? A car hit her? But we looked for feathers, side of the roads, anything that could give us a clue to what happened to her…so after a week, I was sure she was gone, we where all sad.
A week later, on Wednesday, I decided to take the dog for a walk, and as I was walking I looked behind my rabbit’s pen and I see a brown huge spot, I knew that was not there before so I checked it out and as I got closer, I realized it was 2 wings, like angel wings, spread out through the fence….my heart started to pound hard as I began to think, the chicken! And she’s probably dead! She was inside a rolled fence that was lying on the floor against another fence, she probably went inside and her wings got caught when she backed up to get out! So I run there, unrolled the fence and pulled her wings out of the other fence, my hands where shacking and I was almost in tears just thinking about the suffering and struggle of this poor animal for 5 nights and 6 days, no food, cold, probably drinking rain water, she had eggs broken behind, a lot of poop accumulated proving that she’s spent a few days there and she was very very weak, couldn’t keep her eyes open or stand up. Her wings where out of place and all I could do was hug her and take her inside a stall, gave her water with antibiotic, she drank and drank slowly, didn’t want food at all, just water. I put her on a hay nest I made, put the water dish next to it, and brought her tomatoes, watermelon, oats, etc. I went to the extreme to catching crickets for her!! Yuck, I hate those black huge crickets that are always under things, so I caught a few with fear and disgust, slammed them, (so they wouldn’t escape) and gave them to her…she ate them! Yes! She ate!! I also gave her a fresh egg in a plate, crushed the shell and she ate that with pleasure. Protein!! Yes, she’ll be alright I hoped. For the rest of the day, she stayed in the stall, alone, isolated for the rest of the chickens who where all gathered outside like “where did she come from” “What is she eating?” curious and trying to get in there with her, so I practically spent my dad babysitting Plucky. The next day she got up, always walking very slow, walking sideways, she started wandering around but staying very close to the coop, and now it’s been a week and she’s back to herself, at nights, she can now jump up to the stick and got her place back next to the rooster, she stays around most of the day and hangs out with the others too, I think she learned a lesson and besides been this an amazing story of survival, it’s also an advice, to be very careful with rolled fences, they love to get inside, I have found eggs before inside them. Now I stand them up, and cover the hole on top. Chickens are curious, like cats, and they can get in trouble.
Thursday night she didn’t come back and I had a bad feeling about it. We went out with flashlights, but nothing. Next day I looked everywhere, I had hope that she go trapped somewhere and needed help, so I kept looking for the next days but nothing. Nights where very cold and rainy, so in bed I was thinking, well, even if she is somewhere, how can she survive this weather? All I could think was someone stole and ate her…maybe a Hawk? Maybe a dog? A car hit her? But we looked for feathers, side of the roads, anything that could give us a clue to what happened to her…so after a week, I was sure she was gone, we where all sad.
A week later, on Wednesday, I decided to take the dog for a walk, and as I was walking I looked behind my rabbit’s pen and I see a brown huge spot, I knew that was not there before so I checked it out and as I got closer, I realized it was 2 wings, like angel wings, spread out through the fence….my heart started to pound hard as I began to think, the chicken! And she’s probably dead! She was inside a rolled fence that was lying on the floor against another fence, she probably went inside and her wings got caught when she backed up to get out! So I run there, unrolled the fence and pulled her wings out of the other fence, my hands where shacking and I was almost in tears just thinking about the suffering and struggle of this poor animal for 5 nights and 6 days, no food, cold, probably drinking rain water, she had eggs broken behind, a lot of poop accumulated proving that she’s spent a few days there and she was very very weak, couldn’t keep her eyes open or stand up. Her wings where out of place and all I could do was hug her and take her inside a stall, gave her water with antibiotic, she drank and drank slowly, didn’t want food at all, just water. I put her on a hay nest I made, put the water dish next to it, and brought her tomatoes, watermelon, oats, etc. I went to the extreme to catching crickets for her!! Yuck, I hate those black huge crickets that are always under things, so I caught a few with fear and disgust, slammed them, (so they wouldn’t escape) and gave them to her…she ate them! Yes! She ate!! I also gave her a fresh egg in a plate, crushed the shell and she ate that with pleasure. Protein!! Yes, she’ll be alright I hoped. For the rest of the day, she stayed in the stall, alone, isolated for the rest of the chickens who where all gathered outside like “where did she come from” “What is she eating?” curious and trying to get in there with her, so I practically spent my dad babysitting Plucky. The next day she got up, always walking very slow, walking sideways, she started wandering around but staying very close to the coop, and now it’s been a week and she’s back to herself, at nights, she can now jump up to the stick and got her place back next to the rooster, she stays around most of the day and hangs out with the others too, I think she learned a lesson and besides been this an amazing story of survival, it’s also an advice, to be very careful with rolled fences, they love to get inside, I have found eggs before inside them. Now I stand them up, and cover the hole on top. Chickens are curious, like cats, and they can get in trouble.
