Bullied, beaten, starved and frozen!

[Moonwalker]

Our boss decided a few months ago that he wants to have a lot of chickens, so he can have and sell free-range eggs. and by free range I mean TOTALLY free, no pens at all. SO we now have about 70 or so (at least!)assorted chickens running around. He got some good laying types and also picked up some exotics at an auction. These we have in a meshed in horse stall in the tack/feed barn (no horses or other animals live there) along with some pigeons and a couple of rabbits. There is a rabbit hutch in there that we put chicks that are a few weeks old, but not big enough to be loose. This has a heat lamp and the other chickens will come under it and on top of it to sleep when it gets cold. I also put the waterers under it to keep them from freezing. (which was NOT done on my 2 days off last week which is when I came back to find my poor dying Chickie-Bird)They get fed a mixture of cracked corn and laying mash and birdseed, (because they steal the pigeons food when they can.) None of the other people that work there pay attention to them more than to throw feed in the bowls and fill the waterers when I'm not there. Once the weather gets warmer, the chickens will go outside, but for now they have no direct sunlight, but the barn has skylights and the door is always open during the day, it is by no means dark. The outdoor chickens help themselves to the horse feed right along with the horses at feeding time and they have a feeder I keep stocked with scratch/cracked corn in the shed we have the nest boxes. We also have an orphan goose that thinks it is a chicken (she runs from the other geese) and that I am her mommy. She will follow me like a dog when she is not hanging out with her flock of chickens.
Long post I know, sorry, I am kinda frustrated here! Thanks for listening and caring!

Suzi

 

[Jamie Lynn]

Hi there Moon Walker,Hello All
I have just read your post about your poor little silkie. I am going though a sad time with my big rooster.
I looked out the kitchen window and there he was laying in an ice cold puddle that had ice in it. I ran out and gently took him out. He was almost drowed. I held him in my arms and supported hi neck as best I could. He was hardly breathing I held him close and put the heat on us.Ten min. later he started to shiver,as to warm up his body.I think he was getting hypothermia( can't spell it). I called around to the neighbours to have some one put him out of his pain and stress,No one was home or could'nt do it. I lay him on a thick barn coat and covered him with another. Every time I looked he was still alive,I prayed he would just go. Five hours later my husband got home and we were going to put him out of his suffering. I went to pick him up to take outside, just then he stood up, I was gob smacked! since he had been flat out for hours now.
I went to the barn and got a cage for him and kept him in the house overnight. In the morning he was still alive and looking around.He stood up all day and night Not donib much, no water drank or lettuce eaten. The next morning I gave him some honey water and he drank sooooooooo much of it.
He is doing so much better and has even been crowing ALOT!!!! It appears that he has a turned in leg and is not walking at all. He is out of the cage and I have turned my mud room into Rooster E.R.
So what now its been since Sunday and its now Thursday???????
Thanks for letting me go on and on. I have learned so much already from your replys to Sizie and others.Thanks Rooster Intern M.D. Jamie Lynn