I have a dark Brahma hen, Frack (she has a sister named Frick). I heard Frack screaming last week and went running outside to find her under one of my tag-team Roos (by the way, one of them is going to be rehomed). By the time I got to her, I could see that she had deep holes in both sides, so she came in the kitchen in a cage for recuperation.
Frack now has the run of the house. She is pretty much housebroken, going to the same small area of the kitchen when she has to "go." Easy cleanup, although her morning leavings are about as large as my 50-pound dog's! She discovered my mealworm farm in the laundry room, so spends 30 minutes at a time watching "mealworm TV." Needless to say, she gets more than her share of worms because I just can't resist when she's pecking at the side of the bin.
When she wants to go outside, she pecks on the front door. She will go out in the front yard for a while. The boys are in the back yard. They are huge and have never jumped the fence, so she's safe from them. Now, when she wants to lay an egg, she pecks on the front door to be let in and then goes straight to her cage to lay. Last night she spent the evening in my lap watching TV with DH and I.
I soaked her in a warm bath last night and found even more holes in her side that I had missed before. Poor thing! The two big holes are just that - they aren't scratches, they are craters. One is about the size of a penny, the other one about quarter-sized. The smaller ones are about the size of a pencil eraser. They are clean, dry, and healing well. She is eating like a champ and still laying eggs, so this story will have a happy ending.
Anyway, it seems I now have a permanent house chicken, plus, I am almost putting Tess out of business buying chicken saddles for the rest of my girls! Also, I have two roosters that have to go if anybody out there in central Florida wants one. Thus goes the story of Frack, her majesty the house chicken!
Frack now has the run of the house. She is pretty much housebroken, going to the same small area of the kitchen when she has to "go." Easy cleanup, although her morning leavings are about as large as my 50-pound dog's! She discovered my mealworm farm in the laundry room, so spends 30 minutes at a time watching "mealworm TV." Needless to say, she gets more than her share of worms because I just can't resist when she's pecking at the side of the bin.
When she wants to go outside, she pecks on the front door. She will go out in the front yard for a while. The boys are in the back yard. They are huge and have never jumped the fence, so she's safe from them. Now, when she wants to lay an egg, she pecks on the front door to be let in and then goes straight to her cage to lay. Last night she spent the evening in my lap watching TV with DH and I.
I soaked her in a warm bath last night and found even more holes in her side that I had missed before. Poor thing! The two big holes are just that - they aren't scratches, they are craters. One is about the size of a penny, the other one about quarter-sized. The smaller ones are about the size of a pencil eraser. They are clean, dry, and healing well. She is eating like a champ and still laying eggs, so this story will have a happy ending.
Anyway, it seems I now have a permanent house chicken, plus, I am almost putting Tess out of business buying chicken saddles for the rest of my girls! Also, I have two roosters that have to go if anybody out there in central Florida wants one. Thus goes the story of Frack, her majesty the house chicken!
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