The hens periodically make alarm sounds, but by the time I get out to the coop, there is nothing to be seen. This time I saw Sophie the cat stalk by the coop and hide under some cardboard. No wonder the hens freak. (I use the card board on the path to give traction when it is muddy, until I get some decomposed granite.)
Hiding under the cardboard is immensely cute, but I can see how it would upset the chickens!
Taco is a strange bird. Well, her name is Taco. She is the least people friendly and the hardest to catch. When we sit in the coop, she is usually the farthest away. I caught this picture of her taking a nap as my youngest and I hung out with the flock for a bit. With her tail feathers nearly straight up in the air. The others settle with tail feathers up as well, but not nearly to that extreme angle.
Magic the hen is still in isolation while her foot heals from whatever happened to it. She is shuffling around more, and doesn’t need to be moved in order to reach her food and water anymore. Apparently the special treatment caught Twilight’s attention, and when I opened the cage after taking this picture, she hopped in with Magic. She was back out again when she realized I was putting in fresh shavings, not handing out treats!
My eldest and I did another chicken check, where we check under wings for mites, check their vents, check their feet, and get a weight. Most of the chickens’ weight is still recovering from the winter, however Magic’s has gone down, which is not surprising since she is still in isolation with a healing foot. She is starting to shuffle around her enclosure, so I hope she is on the mend. Seashell also had a drop in weight. Turns out she had an infected foot, which we cleaned out and bandaged. Her feet are particularly prone to infection and bumbles. It probably doesn’t help that they are put together a little differently than the other chicken’s feet. Faverolles are supposed to have five toes, and the “extra” toes protrude from inside the foot. When they walk, they have to negotiate not only the terrain, but also those toes. Seashell’s legs are a little shorter, her feet rotate out a bit, and she has an extra nail on one of her extra toes. Makes for more scrapes and injuries to her feet.
Today is National Poultry Day! Strut your stuff, ladies.
In honor of this day I moved their salad garden to a new spot and let them turn over the old plot (ok, really more of a coincidence, but it worked out well). Happy chickens. Well, except for Magic who is still in isolation unable to walk, but she has been starting to put a little more weight on her left leg and using it to shuffle a little. I suspect a sprained or broken toe, rather than a disease since the leg is not paralyzed. She lets me clean the pine shavings off her beard, like the chickens let the alpha hen do. So there we go.
Critters and Craft 