Sad discovery... UPDATE

Saw an add on Craiglist, advertising 10 Rhode Island Reds and Easter Eggers, year old 'laying hens' for $5.

So son of Mahonri and I drove the 15 minutes north...

When we arrived the folks tell us not to be alarmed, they rescued these chickens days earlier... they were probably given to them.

No RIRs available.. some CQs, a few EEs, 1 BSL, 1 WR, some were picked almost clean of feathers... reminded me of the Israeli breed of chicken. When they told me they had gotten 8 eggs out of the 10 hens today, I was incredulous.

They also looked 'old'.

I picked the best one (Birchen EE) that they weren't going to keep and brought it home to try and get it back into shape. I've isolated it, I'm giving it water with vitamins, layer pellets and tomorrow I'll give it some yogurt and canned salmon... it was obviously in need of some protein. They had been giving them salt water and cat food! She said they got them from a backyard that had very little grass and it looked like they were fed very little.... the fellow told them they had been living on the insects in his back yard. Well, I imagine he was giving them scratch cuz the one we brought home was heavy.

I'm guessing it will take me at least 3 months to get it into shape and then I wonder if I will keep it. I felt sorry for them, didn't want to leave without taking at least one off of their hands... I wonder if he will just kill the others. Sad, sad, sad...

 

Here is a pic of our rescue...

She looks WAY better in this photo... you can't see her bare feather picked red butt.

Vitamins and good food and hopefully she'll be OK.

She can see the other chickens but can't get near them.