Flexing

This weekend at the farm required more than a little bit of flexibility. The plans our farmer had made to bail hay were impacted by the weather. Although, I did see that another field got baked and they wrapped there hey, in patriotic mesh, which made me smile.

After our swim at the lake on Saturday, we came home and was surprised to see the farmers dog here in our yard.It it’s not unusual for the dog to come up here with our farmer, however, she is usually riding on the ATV and leaves with him. Then we saw the evidence. There were piles of feathers, all over the yard, and no chickens inside, except one across the field, evidently, unable to move. They say that a dog can be a chickens, greatest protector, or its greatest predator. That’s because a dog that kills chickens for fun is devastating to a flock, unlike a bobcat that might kill one as food.

So, plans for the day were set aside as I cleaned and tended to the huge wounds on the one chicken I found. Later, we located the rooster and three hens safe, but scared in the henhouse. Seven hours later, I found another injured hand, hiding behind some flower pots, and thankfully her injuries appear to be not life-threatening.

I do not know if the most seriously injured girl is out of the woods because her wounds are so deep that there’s always a chance of infection. Late in the day, a couple more little hands carefully creeped out of the tall hayfield that thankfully had not been mowed, dehydrated and frightened, but otherwise, seemingly OK.

This morning, our wounded girl is eating and drinking and seems to be doing OK, but will have to be isolated for a while longer. I thought last weekend I might be rocking a new grandbaby in Colorado and instead this weekend, I am cuddling chickens, trying to help them recover. I’m also giving rooster some extra treats because he put up a good fight to protect his girls.He managed to get a good number of them to safety, despite his torn beard and missing tail feathers.

One of the most frustrating parts of these events is that our dog, who is good with our chickens, did nothing to protect them. It is not the first time that visiting dogs have attacked our chickens for fun, and he just watched it happen. And so, now we are on a mission to find dogs that will actively protect our property and livestock. No doubt we will have some silly puppy stories and frustrations to tell about but we will embark on that new adventure later this week.