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27th November 2013
Chicken Dramas
All my dreams of chickens roaming freely through the orchard, blissfully scratching and foraging, came to an end abruptly on Day 4 of the girls arriving.
Ironically it wasn't foxes, birds of prey, snakes, lizards or feral cats but magpies which brought about this dramatic turn of events.
Our chicken babies had only been with us about half an hour when the maggies began swooping relentlessly.
I brushed it off as being a problem that would ease as the chooks got bigger and the maggies got used to the chickens' presence. So I wasn't prepared to find one of our babies nearly pecked to death and huddled terrified among the brambles of our marionberry.
This poor defenseless little chicken's beautiful eyes were pecked and completely swollen shut and blood covered her comb, now grossly misshapen head and body. Meanwhile our little rooster(?) 'Red', who is not much bigger than a rockmelon was bravely trying to ward the aggressive birds off. Our neighbours will just have to grow to love him, as how could we part with him after he showed such valour?
With the help of my eldest daughter we bathed the injured chicken's wounds with saltwater. This was hard to do as I was crying so and the bird was obviously in a lot of pain. We soaked cottonballs in ice-water and applied these to bring the swelling down. Next we made the bird a cup of camomile and clove tea. The clove would act as an antiseptic and the camomile a painkiller. Then we wrapped the patient tightly in a towel to keep her warm and placed her in a warm and quiet room to hopefully help her recover from the shock her ordeal had no doubt caused.
In my heart of hearts a secret dread that the maggies had taken both her eyes had begun to form.
Every hour I fed the bird the clove and camomile tea using an eyedropper. On top of this I was loath to leave the other chickens unsupervised less another bird end up injured. I remembered reading about a similar case in South Australia where the guy had bought a chook tractor to keep his Australorps safe. This begged the question was it just my distinctive, black hens who were receiving this treatment? A quick call to my cousin who lives about 20 minutes away and keeps golden-brown Highlines answered my question. She had recently had to build a run to protect her girls as they were too afraid to leave the verandah of the house less the maggies attack them.
Jamie was put on warning that his days off from work were going to be largely taken up constructing a chicken run out of salvaged timber, coppers logs and chicken wire. For three days now my beautiful husband has worked from sun-up to sun-down. First he enclosed the verandah of the nighthouse by building two doors so the girls have somewhere safe to be while he works on the run.
Meanwhile I have continued to care for my patient who was still living in the house with us. This involves regularly administering the camomile clove tea and offering her mash to eat, changing the towels lining the box she is housed in and washing the soiled ones. Such was the extent of her injuries I didn't take any pictures on Day 1 but did take pictures to mark her progress from day 2 onwards.
Day 2 - One day after the magpie attack. Photo taken November 2013
On Day 3, my girl (who I have started calling 'Darling') woke up hungry and ate for the first time since the attack. Both eyelids were still swollen shut and she couldn't aim at all but by following her beak with the spoon I was able to get a good amount of feed down her. I was hopeful now that she had retained at least one eye as she was flinching when the flash went off when I took a photo of her.
Day 3 - Darling sleeping after a big feed. Photo taken November 2013.
Today is Day 5 and 'Darling' has finally opened her eyes. Although weepy and swollen, both eyes are there and her aim at feed time is improving.
Day 5 'Darling' enjoys her mash with her eyes open for the first time since the magpie attack.
The flock were safely grazing under the bird-netted quince tree today and I decided that Darling should spend the day with the rest of the flock. In the back of my mind is the worry that if I leave it too long to reintroduce her to the others they might reject and hurt her. She spent the day huddled in one corner trying to stay out of everyone's way. So tonight I have brought her back inside along with one of the other chickens whose eyes are swollen shut but for an entirely different reason.
Patient number 2. Photo taken November 2013
My second patient appears to have conjunctivitus, with what looks like the skin of boiled milk covering both eyes, she has noisy breathing and shivers constantly. I have been watching this chicken for a few days now as all it seems to do is sleep with it's head tucked into it's wings and at night keeps trying to crawl under the others while cheeping incessantly.
I am treating it for a cold/upper respiratory infection and am feeding it warm sage, ginger and honey tea and administering honey as a natural antibiotic.
So there you have it- there are four chickens outside, two inside, half a chicken run, every waking minute seems to be taken up with taking care of the chickens and my laundry smells like a chicken farm!
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