Hello, just wanted to share something that helped us nurse our injured hen back to health a few years ago: One of our free range pet chickens; ten year old Golden Ticket got attacked by a critter and must have sustained a head injury. She couldn't recognize her friends, tried to attack them and would flip over on her back. We took her inside and pampered her as we could, but she kept dwindling away.
After a few days our friend Patrick suggested that she might benefit by seeing her flock mates again. We took her outside but she was too week to scratch and could barely stand. Even in her weakness, a nearby kale plant caught her eye and she aimed a feeble peck that way. Suddenly I remembered how important leafy greens are to health & healing, so I picked a leaf and quickly cut it into bits with my fingernail, offering it to GT on my hand. She pecked it up so fast I knew we were onto something. After a teaspoonful or so, she stopped and seemed to take a nap for a few minutes. When she woke she pecked up all the rest of the chopped leaf, and stood a bit steadier.
We brought her back inside and I made her one of my favorite breakfasts; leafy greens & fruit smoothie, which she LOVED and ate like crazy. Within a week she was nearly back to normal, enough to go outside in a small pen with one or another of her flock mates. She made a full recovery and lived another couple years as the matriarch of the flock.
Here's the recipe I used for Leafy Greens Smoothie: Start with 2.5 cups of water in the blender, add 1 cup blueberries and 1 banana, then stuff in about two cups of leafy greens like spinach, kale, romaine, parsley, celery, stinging nettles, dandelion leaves, collard greens, etc. and blend till smooth. Kept cold it keeps well for two days. Great health tonic for humans & chickens too!
