- Thread starter
- #251
Sunshine Flock
Crowing
Quick update on Henry. If I don't keep these updates going, I lose track of time and I don't always notice progress.
- Henry's toes are spreading wider apart on the recovering right leg. Because I study him daily I'm not seeing the minute details in his healing, so I'll post another video soon to get your eyeballs involved and tell me what you're seeing.
- I'd have to compare photos at this point, or videos, to distinguish any reduction in the swelling in his ankle joint. But it must be going down and freeing up his foot to allow the toes to spread open. They're not as wide apart as they are on his other foot, but I just noticed this two days ago and I'm pretty impressed with the boy.
- Does this stretching apart of his toes when he takes steps indicate muscle control? It's not an involuntary movement enabled by the reduction in swelling, right?
- Henry spends the entire day outside with his hens in the chicken run. When I go into town I stuff the hens in their house and am now doing the same with Henry, since he gets in line behind the last hen and chirps and dances and looks rather frantic without them.
- When I came home I found Henry under the roosts in the pooper zone. Once again I'm having to rethink the roosting setup to accommodate him. It's a small coop, so once I figure out the best placement for the nesting boxes and feed station and redo the roosts, I'll make Henry a roosting box to keep him from hobbling under the roosts again — or I'll give in and make a dastardly poop board so he can safely wander under there.
- If I put the nesting boxes under the roosts, wouldn't he be tempted to sleep in them? Should I even worry about that at this point? I started a discussion on poop boards and thought I had it all figured out, until Henry barely escaped getting plopped on by five hens.
- This isn't a quick update. I thought I should mention that.
- And Emma the Alien Creature Chicken, who's finishing up a beak to tail feather molt — no one told me the tail feathers fall out in a molt; boy was she looking like a fraction of her former self when she lost them — well, she caught herself a live mouse this morning and killed it good. Rodents are disease ridden critters, so I'm not keen on the idea of eating eggs that have been nourished by raw mouse meat. A handful of cilantro was enough to bribe her to remove her beak from the mouse and step away just long enough for me to grab the thing and dispose of it away from the chicken monsters.
- I love cats. But if chickens are this good at catching mice, I'm starting to wonder if cute is enough justification to keep adding cats to the cat population around here. Don't tell my husband I just said that. He'll throw his arms up in victory.
- Speaking of cats, Jasper, one of my several black cats, demonstrated for me how easy it is to climb a tree, jump onto the chicken coop roof, do a barrel roll into the tarp overhang (thereby shredding the tarp I just bought a few weeks ago), and crash into the uncovered chicken yard.
- Great.
- And an oak full of deadwood overhead is making things all the worser for me and my chicken management challenges.
- But Henry is on the mend. I just need to figure out how to get that darn tree cleaned up because the threat of falling deadwood is very real and it's keeping me up at night.
That's all, folks. Thank you once again for tolerating my numerous updates.
- Henry's toes are spreading wider apart on the recovering right leg. Because I study him daily I'm not seeing the minute details in his healing, so I'll post another video soon to get your eyeballs involved and tell me what you're seeing.
- I'd have to compare photos at this point, or videos, to distinguish any reduction in the swelling in his ankle joint. But it must be going down and freeing up his foot to allow the toes to spread open. They're not as wide apart as they are on his other foot, but I just noticed this two days ago and I'm pretty impressed with the boy.
- Does this stretching apart of his toes when he takes steps indicate muscle control? It's not an involuntary movement enabled by the reduction in swelling, right?
- Henry spends the entire day outside with his hens in the chicken run. When I go into town I stuff the hens in their house and am now doing the same with Henry, since he gets in line behind the last hen and chirps and dances and looks rather frantic without them.
- When I came home I found Henry under the roosts in the pooper zone. Once again I'm having to rethink the roosting setup to accommodate him. It's a small coop, so once I figure out the best placement for the nesting boxes and feed station and redo the roosts, I'll make Henry a roosting box to keep him from hobbling under the roosts again — or I'll give in and make a dastardly poop board so he can safely wander under there.
- If I put the nesting boxes under the roosts, wouldn't he be tempted to sleep in them? Should I even worry about that at this point? I started a discussion on poop boards and thought I had it all figured out, until Henry barely escaped getting plopped on by five hens.
- This isn't a quick update. I thought I should mention that.
- And Emma the Alien Creature Chicken, who's finishing up a beak to tail feather molt — no one told me the tail feathers fall out in a molt; boy was she looking like a fraction of her former self when she lost them — well, she caught herself a live mouse this morning and killed it good. Rodents are disease ridden critters, so I'm not keen on the idea of eating eggs that have been nourished by raw mouse meat. A handful of cilantro was enough to bribe her to remove her beak from the mouse and step away just long enough for me to grab the thing and dispose of it away from the chicken monsters.
- I love cats. But if chickens are this good at catching mice, I'm starting to wonder if cute is enough justification to keep adding cats to the cat population around here. Don't tell my husband I just said that. He'll throw his arms up in victory.
- Speaking of cats, Jasper, one of my several black cats, demonstrated for me how easy it is to climb a tree, jump onto the chicken coop roof, do a barrel roll into the tarp overhang (thereby shredding the tarp I just bought a few weeks ago), and crash into the uncovered chicken yard.
- Great.
- And an oak full of deadwood overhead is making things all the worser for me and my chicken management challenges.
- But Henry is on the mend. I just need to figure out how to get that darn tree cleaned up because the threat of falling deadwood is very real and it's keeping me up at night.
That's all, folks. Thank you once again for tolerating my numerous updates.
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