Masonry Construction Block Near-Disaster!!!

[wsdareme]

Yesterday afternoon, after getting a funny feeling, my husband went out to the coop to check on the girls. Good thing he did.

We used a row of masonry construction blocks to set our feeders and waterer on to help keep poop and shavings out of them. Our Barred Rock hen had, for some strange reason, tried to go through the holes in the aligned blocks. Needless to say, she was hopelessly stuck in a very small tunnel. It took my DH several minutes to get her out. He had to move the heavy blocks away from the wall, but keep them somewhat aligned to keep from hurting her. When he did get her out, her comb was bleeding and she couldn't stand up. He held her and petted her until she regained some of the use of her legs, and then kept the other hens away from her bloody comb. Fortunately, she has recovered fully (well, except for her comb -- it looks pretty rough).

We closed off the end of the blocks so it wouldn't happen again. We have no idea why she would want to crawl in there. Maybe she thought it was a nice, dark place to lay her egg. We're very thankful that my hubby felt a need to go check on the girls. We don't think she would have lived through the night.

Please check your coops and runs and make sure you don't have any small spaces that your chickens could get stuck in. We would have been devastated if we had not found her in time.

 

[crtrlovr]

I'm glad your DH found your girl in time. I lost a beautiful EE hen who was looking for a place to lay her first egg.

I had a roll of heavier gauge netting to replace what came down in the record-breaking ice storm we had. I'd stood the roll up against the back of the garage but it was inside the run. I didn't notice that it had fallen over, and apparently she thought it looked like a nice, secure spot. I looked for her for 2 weeks, during the day and every night. I assumed she had gotten out of the run and some predator had gotten her. One day I went to that area and moved the roll, and at the end of it was her beautiful egg. Her body was stuck in the middle of the roll, and she had been unable to back out or go forward. Makes my heart break to think of her dying that way. I'm glad you were able to save your girl.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Thanks to both of you for posting your stories and I am so sorry for your losses. Our crazy birds can get themselves into the smallest and most unlikeliest places. Whenever I hear about a missing bird, I first think that it's stuck someplace. It's probably much more common than any of us realize. I'm always looking for potential traps in my own yard. Hopefully, your stories will help others from losing birds.

 

[RedRoosterFarm]

Hey neighbor! You are close to my place. Glad your girl is ok. We have the same problem here except I had the holes in the blocks going up and down and a feeder on top. I dont know how many times I had to pull chicks out of the blocks. Well we no longer use the blocks. We use wood blocks now.
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