We put a chicken tractor in our field out back. Someone had been farming without our permission and we had since kicked them off so we now we have overgrown hay down there which our hens are doing a fine job of "mowing" as we move the tractor.
There are five black sex links that we raised last spring in the tractor. One of the hens is very dominant and standoffish. Gorgeous bird and now really big.
So yesterday morning I wake up sick as a dog but I had a dentist appointment that would take forever to reschedule so, with the impaired judgment of someone running a fever, I went to the appointment. Where I got really punchy and started laughing at a stupid story that the hygienist told about a neighbor who bought a camel. She suggested that I go home and go to bed.
I get home and decide that I am so tired that I had better make sure that the hens have plenty of food and water in case I don't wake up for the evening feeding. I go down into the field, open up the tractor door and get rushed by hens - or it seemed that way since my reflexes were impaired. The dominant hen is the first to get to me and literally gets pushed out the door by the hens behind her.
Since she has never had free run of the field before she was very confused and started flying around and running into the brush at the edge of the field. Not very far from the tractor but it was hard to get to her without someone herding from behind. I grabbed the net and tried to get her to go back into the tractor on her own.
She wasn't buying it. I get her out of the brush into the field and I'm running through three foot hay swinging this net and she's popping up fifteen feet into the air every ten feet or so, I'm beet red with fever and I start to get dizzy. I start thinking that if I pass out now I will be hidden in the hay and no one will find me until next spring. Now I'm thinking, why am I doing this? But I can't seem to stop. If she stays out all night, something will get her and I'm tired of the senseless loss of hens so I keep at it.
Fortunately, she tired out first and I caught her and popped her back into the tractor. Then I dragged myself back up the hill, fell into bed and slept the rest of the day.
But hey, at least my hen is safe!
There are five black sex links that we raised last spring in the tractor. One of the hens is very dominant and standoffish. Gorgeous bird and now really big.
So yesterday morning I wake up sick as a dog but I had a dentist appointment that would take forever to reschedule so, with the impaired judgment of someone running a fever, I went to the appointment. Where I got really punchy and started laughing at a stupid story that the hygienist told about a neighbor who bought a camel. She suggested that I go home and go to bed.
I get home and decide that I am so tired that I had better make sure that the hens have plenty of food and water in case I don't wake up for the evening feeding. I go down into the field, open up the tractor door and get rushed by hens - or it seemed that way since my reflexes were impaired. The dominant hen is the first to get to me and literally gets pushed out the door by the hens behind her.
Since she has never had free run of the field before she was very confused and started flying around and running into the brush at the edge of the field. Not very far from the tractor but it was hard to get to her without someone herding from behind. I grabbed the net and tried to get her to go back into the tractor on her own.
She wasn't buying it. I get her out of the brush into the field and I'm running through three foot hay swinging this net and she's popping up fifteen feet into the air every ten feet or so, I'm beet red with fever and I start to get dizzy. I start thinking that if I pass out now I will be hidden in the hay and no one will find me until next spring. Now I'm thinking, why am I doing this? But I can't seem to stop. If she stays out all night, something will get her and I'm tired of the senseless loss of hens so I keep at it.
Fortunately, she tired out first and I caught her and popped her back into the tractor. Then I dragged myself back up the hill, fell into bed and slept the rest of the day.
But hey, at least my hen is safe!
