The Wild Chicken

[iwiw60]

I found some pictures of the Wild Chicken with her chicks.

Oh...my....gosh!!! They are absolutely adorable!!!

 

[Eepster]

I have some sad news to report. Last night I found the wild chicken dead. 2 weeks ago she went missing. I hadn't been getting any eggs from her recently, so I thought she had gone broody again. I couldn't find her for one week. Then one morning when I was going to let my chickens out she was just walking around. This had me confused. I thought she was broody because i hadn't gotten any eggs from her the week before. BUT she had ran away a few times before when i had too many roosters. She always came back when she didn't hear as many roosters crowing. At that time I had 5 roosters, and when she came back I had only 2. So I thought that might be why she came back. The day she came back it had rained, she looked all bedraggled. I thought that was because of the rain. The first night she spent inside, but I learned the second night she spent outside. I found her that morning sitting out in the grass all wet. Normally, being a wild chicken and the fact that she was a white egg layer, she would run away as I approached. But this time she stayed right where she was. I put my hand next to her and normally she would scedaddle, but she just kind of flopped a little. I picked her up and she wasn't bleeding or anything, but her feathers were missing at the back of her head. There was also a big black spot. I isolated her with a Welsummer hen I was trying to break of broodiness. The Welsummer was a very kind bird and did not bother her. I put her right next to the water and food so that in case she couldn't walk that good, she could still eat and drink. When I dipped her beak in the water she refused to drink. Last night I found her right where she was the night before, with her head laid in the water and her body all stiff. I have a theory that she was broody but she quit halfway in. She was weak, because she went broody far from food or water. She came back and where she was weak and "new" again someone picked on her a little too hard. I know she was broody because a few days after she came back my grandpa mowed part of the field and found a bunch of white eggs. But anyway, I buried her right where I buried one of her chicks. The cracked egg shells were still there.

 

[iwiw60]

SO sorry about the loss of the wild chicken...it's always sad.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

I'm sorry about your wild chicken.