Chicken Tragedies

All of what I am about to relate happened a long time ago, over a month ago now. It's just been too depressing to talk about on what I planned to be a fun, lighthearted blog.

This all started one morning when Casey came down and found an area dug out under the fenced-in area outside with a lot of black feathers around it. We thought our landlord was supposed to close the sliding door to their outside area at night, and I guess he thought we were going to do it. Anyway, Big Sully (the big, black hen) was not moving much, but was still alive. She had been attacked through the chicken wire and had at least one toe ripped off. I couldn't tell what other injuries she had, but her refusal to move much or respond made me very worried. It was a very hard time. Casey and I spent the next two weeks hand feeding her oatmeal and eggs with pain killers and antibiotics. Casey also sprayed her foot religiously with BlueKote antibiotic spray. After a week or so, she at least started getting up and moving around so we knew at least that she didn't have any serious injuries.  Here is a picture of Casey's lab visiting the chickens while Big Sully is convalescing.

Then, about a week after this animal attack, we came home to find Red Sully missing.  According to Bob, there was a commotion in the yard around 3 pm. When he got there, Red Sully was gone and the barn looked totally untampered with. Either Red Sully was able to fly out of the barn during the day, or Casey accidently left her out in the morning.  It was very sad as Red Sully was everyone's favorite chicken.  She was the prettiest and the nicest.  She will be missed.

Several weeks after Big Sully's animal attack she is really doing very well. She still has a little bit of a limp, and favors her bad foot, but she is really getting along pretty well. What a good chicken!

Now we are very cautious of wild animals and Casey faithfully closes up the barn at night and keeps a close eye on the chickens during outside time.  He is very diligent.  What lucky chickens!