Bird's Eye View

A Bird's Eye View

Remember the chickens I had to cull out due to their feather-less condition? I had one more in this pen which was in the same condition. One of our other posters suggested I check to ensure that the birds did not have lice.

The goal? Catch the bird sans tail feathers, examine her to see if she had any creepy crawlies. So into the pen I crawled, literally.

This pen - affectionately known as Fort Poultry is 2 cinder blocks high, climbing in at this juncture is not quite as difficult as it was in the beginning. :-)

Fort Poultry - The Beginning

This is the beginning of Fort Poultry - notice the bare ground and all the cinder blocks showing.

Climbing into this one was a challenge - added to that one of the corner blocks, which I happened to use *once* was not secure, and I almost fell in.

Stepping into the pen causes my feathered friends to become extremely ALARMED and run as far away from the (cough) intruder as possible.

I am in the pen, everyone is piled up in the corner as far away from me as possible, ahhh, there is the one I want, hunched over, trying very hard NOT to put my knee down in the hay and uhm, droppings, snatch up a hen by the leg. Drag her back, drat, WRONG chicken!

By this time, everyone is flying around inside the pen, or as well as one can fly in limited air space. Realize I am taking up at least 1/3 of the front space, which has the opening to...F-R-E-E-D-O-M!

Release the chicken I did not want...ah, there she is...panicked, who should actually make it past me, up and out the opening to the wild outdoors? The hen I wanted.

Climb out of the pen, place tarp back over to prevent further escapees. Try to guide the hen, who at this juncture just wants to GO HOME...LET ME IN, as she tries to figure out how to get back in with her pen pals.

After a couple of times circling the pens in an attempt to snatch her, she decides to go between the Fort and the portable pen. I had placed the portable pen next to the Fort to provide security and electricity (heat lamp). I'm thinking, oh yeah...go on in between there and you are MINE!

Heh! Cooperative little bugger did just that...wedged in, she can't go up and she can't go forward, snagged.

Bird begins to scream, "HELP! HELP! I've been taken! Other pen pals begin to cackle in sympathy, "We know, we know!"

Okay, that didn't really say that...but it sure sounded like it to me. LOL!

Alright, now I have the hen, examine her, nope, no buggies. I was pretty sure that the reason for their de-frocked state was over crowding which caused the birds to pick at one another. For a standard breed the typical requirements are 2 square feet per bird, bantams are 1.

I put Vet RX on her beak, dust her with DE and put her in the recovery cage. At this stage, she is still not as lively as I would like, but with 4 in a similar state, they are not picking on one another. This is an encouragement to make sure I have the next level up pens ready. Lack of planning on my part cost me 2 pullets and 3 months worth of feed for them.

One side of free-ranging poultry

Reasons we don’t free-range our poultry.

First reason. Coyotes. Foxes. Possums. Raccoons. Hawks. Owls. Loose dogs. Loose cats. We have lost or nearly lost poultry on the property to just about every predator on the list! We have had an owl smashing into the side of our coop trying to get at our birds. My children almost lost a remote control flying dragonfly to a swooping owl who pulled up at the last second when he realized the toy was NOT food!

Second reason. Chickens are like little destructive rototillers, and they will get in your garden and destroy a lot of plants in a big hurry! There was an elderly lady I went to church with years ago who had a really good system that took advantage of this. She had a large fenced in garden that was divided in the middle. One half was her garden, the other half was her chicken coop. When one season of growing was done, she would move the chickens to the garden side, where they would eat the remaining old vines and crops, larvae and bugs, weeds and their seeds…plus fertilize while they were at it! Next growing season, she would switch them back. She said her gardens were really productive!

Third reason. Poultry do not understand property lines, and may take their little destructive rototilling selves over to the neighbors.

Fourth reason. Attack birds! We had two guineas named Ed and Gurt. Ed was MEAN, and lost his freedom when he attempted to scratch the eyes out of my friend’s head with no provocation whatsoever. Into a cage he went! I was always grateful that my friend took it in stride…I told her if I had to choose a friend to get attacked by an animal on my property, she was on the list! Maybe it helped that she was a vegetarian.