Fair is fowl, fowl is fair.

[AntiqueB]

Poor Tex, and such a horrifying experience for you both. You are lucky to have a husband so willing; he's worth his weight in gold. Positive thoughts are going your way!

 

[fowltemptress]

The birds of prey have been active lately. The other day I noticed a huge pile of feathers out near the guinea coops. I couldn't for the life of me figure out who had been taken. None of my guineas have feathers like what was in the pile, and my chicken count at night came up correct, so I was confused. Molting has also begun in earnest for some of the chooks, so it took me awhile to realize this wasn't normal:

So, from this I've learned that chickens have enough rump feathers to fool me into thinking a whole bird has been taken. Apparently lizards aren't the only animals that can lose a tail as a defense mechanism!

Once I realized Marian wasn't molting I did check her over. She was acting normal, but she had a huge tear in her skin under her wing, exposing the muscles beneath. I'm kicking myself for never thinking to take pictures of injuries, but most chicken owners who have experienced this type of injury know it looks pretty alarming the first time you see it. As far as injuries go, though, I welcome this type. They're easy to clean, and the skin mends itself rapidly. I swear if you sat and watched you could actually see the skin pulling itself together.

Marian is a lucky bird, but there have been some losses, as is the case every year. Most of the losses have been from the guineas - I lost my one purple guinea finally. I had hoped he would beat the odds - but I also recently lost one of the Golden Girls who'd been raising up a couple of chicks. Normally I would have let the chicks be because chicks in my flock do very well even without mothers, but one of these chicks had a leg sticking out sideways from its body. It wasn't like that before the hen disappeared, so I'm not sure if this injury was courtesy of the same attack that took the mom. When I picked the chick up and manipulated the leg I felt some crunching and a pop, like something went back into a socket. The leg is no longer bent the wrong way, but the chick isn't using it so I tossed it and its sibling in the garage to give it time to heal up.

As far as things go on the Tex front, the other ganders have quit trying to chase him away from the flock, so I've been comfortable letting him roam with everyone during the day. He preens all the time, which I think is keeping his feathers in better condition than they otherwise would be. I still lock him up with Hans in the garage at night, but that's because the coops are always a little overcrowded this time of year and I'm wanting to make sure he has access to all the food and water he wants. He'd probably be fine in the coop, but I feel like it'll take awhile before I can convince myself to quit babying him quite so much.

RIP Purple. You had a good run.