Winter: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

   With winter hopefully drawing to a close, I thought it would be good to look back on the past couple months. Let me tell you, it did not go well. Shall we start with good news first?

The Good:

   We got a lot of snow here in New England this year. And I mean a lot. In Boston, they got over ONE HUNDRED INCHES! I am counting this as a good because I personally love the snow. However, I am definitely ready for Spring!

   Another good thing that happened this winter was finding out about new treats. I tested and discovered so many new toys that are now some of the chicken's favorites (for example cabbage on a string and Molt Muffins).


The Bad:

   So much snow. Yes, this is going under good and bad. Even though I loved the snow, the chickens hated it. For much of the winter, they refused to go outside. They've only started coming outside in about the last month.

   Also, Sleepy went broody at one point. It was for a short time, and I didn't manage to get any pictures. We had to bring her inside for a few days and there was some pretty bad fighting when we put her back in the coop.


The Ugly:

   I lost my favorite chicken, Lizzy. Even in winter you have to worry about hawks.

   We had a lot of boredom problems this winter. We have had two seriously injured chickens (first Raven, and now Daisy which I will be writing about soon). All of the chickens look torn, with feathers missing or broken. Most of them have small cuts.
   This was the first time I've had to deal with problems like this. My first flock didn't have any problems in the winter.
   However, I think we might have finally found a solution. I am pretty sure I am writing about it next week so you'll just have to come back then! See you soon!


P.S. I am sorry I posted so late today. I am sick so I slept in a while.

Evil Chicken: Part 2

   So continuing from last week...

   Speckles just got moved in with her old friends after isolation. From what I read online, this was supposed to move her down on the pecking order. However, the other chickens welcomed her back without pause...

   I had never seen that before. Every other time we have had to reintroduce a chicken to the flock there is always fighting. Pecking, flapping, something! But not this time.

   We watched them for for a while and all seemed well. Speckles appeared to be cured of her evil ways and ready to rejoin normal chicken life. I was perfectly happy until the next day...

   When I first walked into the coop, Raven was the first thing I saw. What was at first had been a deep cut at best had been turned into a wound down to the muscle! It was definitely the worst thing I had ever seen! (By the way, I will not be including any pictures of her wound.)

   My Dad and I brought Raven in and washed the gash thoroughly. Then we put her in the pen we recently kept Speckles in.

   Well, after this we didn't know what to do about Speckles. She couldn't stay in the coop (that was for certain), and we couldn't keep her in our mudroom for any long length of time. I also didn't have the heart to give her away. I wouldn't want to burden anyone else and I did raise her from her second day alive. 

   But, finally, we found the solution!

   The little red coop. This was the coop my original small flock lived in. It had been unused since their death.

   All we needed to do was get a new waterer, put some bedding in, and find the extension cord for the heat lamp. 

   

   It is kind of a pain to take care of two coops but it is definitely better than having to deal with a bleeding chicken.

   We are reintroducing Raven today! I hope it goes well!

   See you next week!

Evil Chicken: Part 1

   I am very sorry about last week! Anyway, this is what was going on.
 
   One day last week, I went out to see the chickens and Raven was bleeding. She hadn't been attacked by a predator, but by Speckles. Speckles has been kind of mean lately. She pecked at everyone's feathers so they all look really rough. This was, however, a new low.

   We cleaned Raven up as much as we could and put her back in the coop, but Speckles could not stay. I read online that you should separate the bully to try and correct the behavior.

   We used an old puppy cage  and set it up in our mudroom.

    Speckles was NOT happy about it, but she had everything she needed and she was away from the other chickens.

   Finally, after a full week of isolation, we put her back in. Lets just say, things did not go to plan...