I mentioned the other day that we'd had to pull a hen out of the flock. We'd seen frequent evidence of egg-eating out in the coop - bits of broken shell with yolk and white oozing on them - and given the fact that we were getting barely any eggs to begin with (what with the hens just coming out of the yearly molt) such behavior couldn't be tolerated. The hen with egg on her beak got put into isolation. We'd long suspected that she wasn't laying - she never seemed to be in a nest box, no matter what time of day we were out there.
After a week of isolation, we had our evidence. There were no more broken eggs in the coop. Miss Isolation either laid no eggs, or ate whatever she laid. Neither was acceptable.
Sunday, Madman spent the early hours of the morning sitting in a tree stand, waiting for a deer. (First weekend of hunting season - he'd gone out most of the day Saturday as well.) Then he came home for a quick chicken butchering, lunch, and a rest, then off he went to the tree stand again.
I wrapped up our former egg-eater, all nice and cozy, and she's now in the freezer awaiting a starring role in Chicken and Dumplings.
8 comments:
Good!
We can't have livestock that aren't pulling their weight.
How did he do? Any luck?
I think that there must be something wrong with me in that I somehow think this is funny. Also- I love the chicken stories-
I, too, found this funny. And real. And what else can you do?
Although I can say, down here, I rather hate hunting season. (Or specifically illegal hunting season and illegal hunters and illegal bullets whizzing past us on non-hunting paths. (Rant much?) So if I ever seem unreceptive, this is why.)
But I do hope Madman had some good luck - its gettin' cold up there!
Yannow.... if youse guys eat that chicken youse might spread egg eating cooties to all the other chickens just by them being so near ya. You need to ship that boid north, just sayin...
Reminds me of story from my teen years: We had a rooster who, well, just wasn't doing his job. It quite distressed my sister (who should not have been a mid-west farmer's daughter), to find a package in the freezer labeled "Charlie the Rooster". Well, you do want to know which one in the freezer is the old rooster and not some young pullet, don't you?
Oh, you write this so funny. I want some of those chicken -n- biscuits!
Good riddance, we sez. No chicken feed should be wasted on a hen that doesn't, um, do the deed.
There is something so balance of nature about that chicken.
Is Madman usually successful?
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