Oh no! I think my husband would kill me if I let the hens in the house! It was bad enough when I was trying to nurse Penny back to health after the dog attack and she was living in the extra room. I think he asked every day when she'd be able to go back outside!You're welcome. I wish I had a picture of him grown, but we sold him as we had too many roos.
We still have Frack, the hen. As you can see, she rules the house (and lays eggs in our bed).
This is a wonderful story. She is a very special chicken indeed. I love that she taught her babies to be part of both families.Frack is a special girl. When she was around a year old, she was brutally ripped up by an over-eager rooster. Her sides were ripped up and the skin just hung like empty pockets on both sides. She recuperated in the kitchen in a crate. When she was feeling better, she would go to the front door and "ask" to go out. When she wanted to come back in, she would peck on the door. She eventually housebroke herself this way. She refused to rejoin the flock until we rehomed the rooster. Then she would go out with her friends, but still come in and sleep at night. She learned her name and still comes running when called. She went broody once, 4 years ago, and hatched her chicks in the kitchen. She would march them to the front door to go outside in the mornings and then back in the afternoons. She is now an old lady, about 8 years old, and lays for a few days once or twice a month, but she is still top chicken in our house!
I'm so happy to see your birds doing so well!!So, I promised that I'd post pictures after the recoveries and the sights weren't so bad anymore, so here goes.
This is Penny, the now 9 month old that was the oldest survivor of the dog attack in the coop. I was really worried about her, thought several times about putting her down, but as you can see now, she's back! She lost all of the feathers on her back, her neck was open to the bone and she had a serious gash on her abdomen. I hand fed & watered her for almost two full weeks and it was really touch and go. Please don't mind the messy feathering....she got pretty messed up in the attack.
This is Marmie, the other survivor. I decided to call her Marmie because she adopts the younger chicks just like a mother. Anyway, she wasn't as seriously injured, recovered very quickly. I kept her on antibiotics for a week just to make sure that infection didn't set in. She is 10 weeks old now and loves to purr to the chicks to calm them down....just like a broody would. I expect that she may turn out to be my new broody.
These two chicks were in the house brooder the night of the attack, so they weren't effected. I think they are both cockerels, but I have my doubts about the smaller, lighter one. That one was the runt of the litter, and has been very slow to develop. The feathering is slow, there are no tail feathers, but at the same time there isn't a sign of red in the wattles and comb......so, for now, it is sex undetermined. There were 4, but 2 were taken by a cat (we think) almost right after they went outside. We've since double fenced. They are 6 1/2 weeks old.
And last, but not least, are the six 3 1/2 week olds that I just put out in the coop this week. I suspect 2 pullets, 2 cockerels, and 2 are completely unknown. We'll see.
I lost all of my darks in the attack. Since then, I had one batch in the incubator that didn't hatch because of incubator problems and I currently have a batch of darks at about day 12 of incubation. We'll see if I get any to hatch. If not, I may have to wait until next year. All of these are partridge (gold/blue).
Penny isn't laying again, and I don't expect her to for a while (if ever). I'm glad to know that yours started laying again 8 months later....that gives me hope that she will start again sometime. She keeps looking for her mate, who I think was the first to die trying to protect everyone. I don't know when she'll accept that he's gone, maybe when I choose another cockerel to keep for breeding. I am just so relieved that she lived. It was so hard to watch her fight for her life and know that there was only so much that I could do. The dog breeds were pit and shepherd. I'm a little surprised at the shepherd, but I caught them trying to get into the coop again the next night on my game camera, so I'm absolutely positive it was them.
She is beautiful!
This is The Lady. She is our oldest and first hen we ever had. We got her almost 2 years ago with another one. Back then it was a pair of Ladies. But we lost the other one to our pug terrier mix. She's still my favorite and definitely the queen of the pecking order.
