One of the chickens disappeared for a couple of days. We'll call her Papillon. I discovered her one morning caught between the two fences that surround their pen. Her wings, her feet and her head were entangled in both the metal of the interior fence and the mesh of the nylon. She was strangely silent but flapping as well as she could considering she'd hogtied herself. Once I freed her, no small feat that, it was clear she'd lost a lot of her plumage and was limping. We don't know if she did that trying to free herself from her self-sprung trap or if she'd escaped from someone or something's clutches. She was less than mobile for a few days and then, funny-looking as hell, began to rally. She ranged. She ate. This weekend the rest of the flock turned on her and quite violently. Ray and Diane, Shaggy and Moxie's new auntie, discovered it while we were in Courtnay. They created a pen-within-a-pen refuge for her. Lili let her out Sunday while her contemporaries (I hardly think we can call them friends) were ranging. They came charging up the hill after her like the Red Army. No one seems to know why the group has isolated her, though people who know their pullets better than we have seen it before.The only thing we know for sure is that it wasn't over a boy.
Now that we have separate quarters for Papillon, I wonder what will happen if another bird gets bullied by the flock. Will we have to make another haven inside the one Ray and Diane constructed? And, if a third one is victimized, another pen inside of that one? Before you know it their would be 11 concentric sort-of-circular little prisons, one bird, cowering in each. Meanwhile the dominant bird - and there is one - would be pacing menacingly and yelling in Chickenese, "Yeah, you bitches better shape up in there!"
Now that we have separate quarters for Papillon, I wonder what will happen if another bird gets bullied by the flock. Will we have to make another haven inside the one Ray and Diane constructed? And, if a third one is victimized, another pen inside of that one? Before you know it their would be 11 concentric sort-of-circular little prisons, one bird, cowering in each. Meanwhile the dominant bird - and there is one - would be pacing menacingly and yelling in Chickenese, "Yeah, you bitches better shape up in there!"
Lili wondered if we weren't going to have to give her away. There are other solutions.
Quote the Bard (not Josh, the other Bard): A bucket of Popeye's, a biscuit and thou... oh, and a Bud Light
2 comments:
You are bad! And funny.
mmmm eggs and chickens are 2 of my favorite foods. Too bad if you eat the chicken there are no more eggs. Life is full of choices.
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