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Chicken First Aid

My 14-year-old son had decided to try his hand at growing eggs. His little chicks are now almost full grown; my terriers have taken a dislike to them. They killed one and took all the feathers off the back of the neck of another and made a few puncture wounds.

So there I was last night in the dark, cleaning the wound, putting anti-bacterial cream on, then a non-sick pad and wrapped the whole neck with a bandage tied with a safety pin. Did I mention that I have an irrational fear of chickens?

Anyway the poor little trusting soul just let me fix her up and even closed her eyes as I was wrapping the bandage. If she makes it, we are going to call her Lucky.

I’m never going to eat chicken again.

Oh, I hope the little chickie makes it. You are a kind soul, and it sounds like you're a good nurse too.

Stories like this make me want to join you in never eating chicken again.

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It would be far more efficient with far less emotional stress to just let the terrors eat the eggs.

Sola, you're just an old softie. Or young softie.. either one, I can say I'm proud you took the time to help that little chick survive such a harrowing experience.

In our area chicken farming has become the rage. Must be a lot of money in raising chickens for Colonel Sanders. But when it's time to clean the chicken houses the poop is strown over the fields and its at these times I swear I'll never take another trip to KFC. The amonia stink is so strong that even skunks leave the county for at least a week. And would you believe that I can predict the weather when the fields are fertilized? Yes, I can rightly predict that it will not rain to cleanse the air. Of course the skunks already knew this.

Then again, there's nothing like home grown food whether it be from the garden or the barn...

I've got a neighbor who often has to bring newborn lambs into their house during the early spring to care for the one's that get cold or sick, and they need to be bottle fed for several weeks. The kids often get pretty attached to them during that time, but in the end when the lambs have grown, then it's off to the market or into the freezer...

And when I was a kid, I also raised some chicks to adulthood. One of 'em came out of the egg with a leg malformation, where the lower leg went sideways at the joint just below the feathered portion. So that chick walked around the edge of the cage, one foot on the ground and the other clutching the chicken wire fencing. The chick got real good at moving around that way and it grew to adulthood without much of a problem, although it was the first one to go into the fridge.

But we learned never to name our livestock, other than calling them 'Barbecue' or 'Dinner'. But it's still hard not to get emotionally attached to the critters, especially when you spend hours and hours caring for them. But in the end, the saying of Grace takes on a whole new meaning at the table.

I do feed eggs to the dogs - it is a cheap and easy way to add extra protein as they keep for days in the fridge after you boil them.

Doc my son is also making a chicken coop - it is quite fancy, but his dad has been too busy to help much and he has been learning a few things the hard way. I hammered a few nails in for him but now he needs more wood - I think things will be better when they have a place of their own.

Lucky is still alive but had to be separated from the flock as they would have pecked her to death for being different.

He got a rooster by accident as he only ordered a box of hens - he called that one Lenin. We have a BBC series that my son loves: The Good Life/Good Neighbours; in it, the couple go back to nature in the middle of an English town with only a garden plot and a dung furnace in the basement. The chicken in that is called Lenin - I don't think my son is a commie.

oh, that's so sweet. i'm rooting for lucky.

when my husband lived in a commune back in the late 70's out in oregon he went chicken picking. a chicken farm contracted with the commune to hire workers when it was time to "harvest" the chickens that had been feeding (and pooping) non-stop during the fattening up process. when it's time to "pick" them, the farmer stops the feed and dims the lights so the chickens will be drowsy and docile.

from the stories he's told me about those times, i'm surpised he still eats chicken at all.

macfan

http://find.msn.com/search.aspx?q=Headless+chicken+Mike&c=0804+Headless+chicken+Mike&form=MSNIIT

and let us not forget mike the headless chicken...

macfan

I'm too chicken to look!

not to worry...that link doesn't show the real mike.

to see him, you'll have to visit the official mike website:
http://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org/story.html

macfan

I used to keep chickens. Horrible critturs - peck each other to bits.

We had some that were hatched in a primary school - what the kids did not know was that the lovely fluffy chicks were taken from the school and put, live, into cages for birds of prey to eat.

I don't like birds at all - nasty pecky clawy things. Ugh.