Background: Have three hens; am only allowed two, per the Village's municipal codes. However, at my invitation, the Mayor and his wife have been to my home and I proudly showed off my coop and run and my three chickens. Held my most docile girl up for the Mayor to pet, and I talked a mile a minute about the advantages of chicken-keeping. That was two weeks ago. When he left, he asked me to deliver supporting papers (newspaper and magazine articles, web printouts, etc.,) to his office the next day so that when he met with the Village Board the next day, he could discuss raising the hen limit from two to my requested eight. I delivered the papers along with my personal letter to the Mayor asking if I could have a variance to the code or, if possible, a completely updated code to allow all chicken-keeping residents an increase to a maximum of eight hens. I haven't heard anything yet, but I'm hopeful that I will within the next month or so.
Anyway, here's the story of today's adventure. It's Saturday morning and DH and I are fast asleep at 8:30am. I hear the doorbell, grab a robe and run to the front porch. There stands a man, smiling and asking if I've lost a chicken!! I gasp and ask him to wait while I run out back to the coop. Nope! All mine are safe and sound behind their locked and predator-proof run.
He asks if I'll take his chicken. It wandered into his yard, about five blocks away from my house, two days ago and he's been feeding it birdseed. He asked his neighbor this morning if she's ever heard of anyone in the neighborhood having chickens and since she indeed heard of me and my little flock, she gave him my address. He hopped in his car, and showed up ten minutes later with a chicken in a cardboard box. And now, voila, I have a fourth chicken.
She sat quietly in the cardboard box in my sunroom, while I spent an hour and a half setting up a pen with woodshavings in my garage.
By 10am, I had bathed her in warm water with liquid Dawn dishwashing soap. Then rinsed her well. Then, dipped her in a solution of one ounce of Poultry Protector Concentrate in a gallon of warm water. Then I rubbed her down with terry toweling, and kept a moving hair dryer on her for a few minutes.
Then I set her down in the makeshift setup inside my garage. She's very, very calm and quiet. Eyes are bright and healthy looking. I haven't heard any crowing so I'm HOPING she's a she. She coped with the bathing very nicely and hardly struggled at all. Kinda seemed to enjoy it.
I showed her the bowl of crumbles and she ate some. Haven't seen her drink any of the water. She's pooped twice; poop looks normal. No bad smells.
She has one missing toe tip; the nail is entirely missing and the stump is black. Also, the next toe over, has a black area; I don't know if it's a scab that will eventually heal and drop off, or if it's a permanent discoloration. But it's the same look and feel as the end of the stump.
She's a rusty red for the most part; the four or five of it's longest tail feathers are black. There is also some black on the top of the hidden part of her long wing feathers. Her legs and feet are bright, bright yellow.
She likes sitting quietly; I'd even hazard a guess that she's gone broody. But I've never seen a broody, so I'm just guessing.
See the attached photos and please tell me if you can suggest what her breed is and what the gender is. Age?? I've had her eight hours now and the only sounds she's made is a soft clucking. No crowing.
Thanks.
Anyway, here's the story of today's adventure. It's Saturday morning and DH and I are fast asleep at 8:30am. I hear the doorbell, grab a robe and run to the front porch. There stands a man, smiling and asking if I've lost a chicken!! I gasp and ask him to wait while I run out back to the coop. Nope! All mine are safe and sound behind their locked and predator-proof run.
He asks if I'll take his chicken. It wandered into his yard, about five blocks away from my house, two days ago and he's been feeding it birdseed. He asked his neighbor this morning if she's ever heard of anyone in the neighborhood having chickens and since she indeed heard of me and my little flock, she gave him my address. He hopped in his car, and showed up ten minutes later with a chicken in a cardboard box. And now, voila, I have a fourth chicken.
She sat quietly in the cardboard box in my sunroom, while I spent an hour and a half setting up a pen with woodshavings in my garage.
By 10am, I had bathed her in warm water with liquid Dawn dishwashing soap. Then rinsed her well. Then, dipped her in a solution of one ounce of Poultry Protector Concentrate in a gallon of warm water. Then I rubbed her down with terry toweling, and kept a moving hair dryer on her for a few minutes.
Then I set her down in the makeshift setup inside my garage. She's very, very calm and quiet. Eyes are bright and healthy looking. I haven't heard any crowing so I'm HOPING she's a she. She coped with the bathing very nicely and hardly struggled at all. Kinda seemed to enjoy it.
I showed her the bowl of crumbles and she ate some. Haven't seen her drink any of the water. She's pooped twice; poop looks normal. No bad smells.
She has one missing toe tip; the nail is entirely missing and the stump is black. Also, the next toe over, has a black area; I don't know if it's a scab that will eventually heal and drop off, or if it's a permanent discoloration. But it's the same look and feel as the end of the stump.
She's a rusty red for the most part; the four or five of it's longest tail feathers are black. There is also some black on the top of the hidden part of her long wing feathers. Her legs and feet are bright, bright yellow.
She likes sitting quietly; I'd even hazard a guess that she's gone broody. But I've never seen a broody, so I'm just guessing.
See the attached photos and please tell me if you can suggest what her breed is and what the gender is. Age?? I've had her eight hours now and the only sounds she's made is a soft clucking. No crowing.
Thanks.
I wish it were a girl for you and he's just about crowing age too!
