A tale of two chickens

I have taken my time with this post. I wanted to collect photos. I wanted time to think. I have also been out the last few days. Tuesday was husband’s eye hospital day and Wednesday I was at my mum’s. The main events of this post happened on Sunday which was three days ago.

It started with a phone call from our neighbour opposite at eight o’clock in the morning.

Our neighbour said that she had just opened her curtains and could see a chicken on next door’s path just the other side of ours. She wasn’t sure if it was one of mine. I knew it couldn’t be because my girls can’t get out and I hadn’t even unlocked their outside gate at this stage.

We went out and found it was a full size brown chicken. We tried to catch it but it flew over our gate into our garden. It disappeared and we thought maybe it had gone under the fence into our next door neighbour’s garden. They were by now in their garden so we asked them to look for her. She couldn’t be seen.

Later I saw the chicken again on our back garden path. There is lots of dense shrubbery in our garden for a chicken to hide in. I opened the dog crate in our shed and got some corn to try to bring the chicken to me. She quickly hoovered up the corn but wouldn’t come close to me.

Husband and me tried to block her and catch her but she kept disappearing into the shrubbery. Husband got the large net ready. We spent quite a long time trying to catch her. Eventually we managed to heard her through the open door of our work cabin/kitchen. Husband shut himself in with her and caught her in the net. It sounded as if she was being murdered!

I put her in the dog crate with water, pellets and mash. She settled in. She ate a full dish of mash which I then re filled and she settled on the perch.

I don’t do any social media and to add to events I couldn’t get my computer to switch on. My neighbour opposite is part of a face book group for Wooburn, Bourne End and Flackwell so she set about messaging to see if anyone had lost a chicken. We said we couldn’t keep her as she was too big to add to our bantam flock.

We spent all day messaging back and forth with updates and keeping my next door neighbour up to date too. It is lovely how our neighbours always pull together when needed.

We kept the neighbours updated on how the guest chicken was doing. She was eating, drinking and pooping. She knocked her mash over twice and shouted at me when I cleaned up but in between was quite and well behaved.

The other side of this story is about Ginger who has been pulling feathers from the girls since she was integrated into the flock. We got Silver and Ginger in August last year. Ginger started laying in September so they were integrated into the flock at that point.

Ginger started pulling feathers from the girls. She would target the three game girls on the inside of their neck. She went on to pulling fluffy bottom feathers and Cloud’s bottom became quite bare.

We tried separating Ginger but she hated it and patrolled the wire trying to get back in. As soon as I let her back in she started pulling feathers again.

We had new girls Popcorn and Maple in April this year. Popcorn started laying in May so we integrated them at that point. It wasn’t long before Ginger started plucking Popcorn. Maple is very skittish and is the only girl untouched by Ginger as she won’t let anyone near her including me.

It seemed like Ginger was over enthusiastic at grooming because as soon as a girl, particularly Popcorn, was in a dust bath she would go straight to them and start pulling feathers from her back. Popcorn is bottom girl and so seemed targeted the most.

I didn’t blog about this problem because I had no idea how to resolve it. Previous people I re-homed chickens with have lost touch or moved away or given up chickens.

I absolutely hate feather picking and I always worry that the habit may get passed on but it seemed to have stopped with just Ginger. Also there have been no completely bare necks, heads or bottoms. She also had nine other girls to pluck until we lost Silver, then eight other girls to pick on so it’s been spread out.

I assumed as Mango was moulting that Cloud was too. It turns out she isn’t but was just looking a little tattered from the plucking. Mango has a pale comb and Cloud, in the foreground, still has a red comb. Cloud has now come back into lay after a three week break and has now laid three eggs in six days.

Popcorn is broody after laying thirty four eggs in two months. Snow has come through being broody and Storm is now broody after laying six eggs in ten days. Red is still also broody.

As the day went on my neighbour opposite was messaging me. She said she hadn’t found the owner but four people had said that they would take her to keep her or to hold on to her until her owner could be found. She said she thought we should wait until the end of the day and choose one.

Towards the end of the day my neighbour said that there was a lady who worked on a farm and had chickens herself and she could collect her at the end of the day on her way home from work.

The lady arrived just after six o’clock. As we walked up towards the chickens I explained that I would have kept our guest chicken if she had been a bantam like my girls. She said that she had bantams, full size chickens and ducks.

I asked if she would like to take a problem bantam. I explained the situation and pointed out the damage done to Popcorn and Gold. We both agreed that if Ginger went in as bottom girl in a new flock the feather picking wouldn’t be tolerated. She said she would be happy to take her.

I felt as if the solution to our problem had just dropped into my lap. I wrote down my telephone number, e-mail address and the name of my blog and we said we would keep in touch. I was so thankful to her for taking both girls.

The next day my neighbour opposite messaged to say that the owner had been found. She wasn’t part of face book but a friend had let her know. She had been distraught as a cat had chased her girl away. My neighbour put her in touch with the lady who took her so that they could be reunited.

I felt that at least she had Ginger for her troubles so had still gained a chicken.

The next day I felt sad and a little guilty wondering how Ginger was doing in her new home. In the afternoon when I checked on the girls they were all sitting together in small groups looking very chilled. I realised that I hadn’t seen this in a while. It struck me then that whenever they would be sitting or dust bathing Ginger would start pulling at their feathers and they would move on.

It was so peaceful in the chicken run without Ginger. In that moment I knew that I had made the right decision. I always need to do what is right for the good of the flock. It had all turned out for the best and now we are back to a flock of eight.