Birchtree Farm

So we've had this chicken living in the house (see post from March 2nd) for almost a couple months now, and we've been trying to integrate her back into the flock. She had healed from her hawk-inflicted wounds, and grown almost all her feathers back.

A few weeks ago I tried to put her back out with the flock, but they picked her back bare and as she is white, any bit of blood just shows that much better and encourages more picking. Back in the house she came.

This week I have been letting the chickens out of their pen to free-range, since the snow has melted back significantly, and they can get into the woods and scratch around. I figured it was a good time to try to get the house chicken back outside as she was starting to grow new feathers in on her back, and she certainly looks better than a lot of the hens who are nearly bare-backed from being "ridden" by the roosters. With everyone roaming around, they would have other things on their minds besides picking on the "new" chicken, or so I hoped.

However, the roosters notice everything, and a "new" hen was not to be overlooked. It seemed to be going OK the last couple days. I would put her out in her crate where she could see everything but not be harassed right away, and then later in the day I would open the door. She'd come out and immediately the roosters would run over and jump on her to mate, but then they'd get distracted by something and go off elsewhere.

Today however, for some reason they were upset by her being around, and she ended up in the coop hiding in the corner while they did their alarm call over and over and over. By this evening she was again picked bare on her back, and was hiding behind the coop door with her head in the corner when Ken went out to close things up for the night. He brought her inside with him, in her crate. We set out some food and water and she went right to it, as apparently they had not let her eat or drink for most of the day. Then she walked around the living room for a while, and finally settled down behind a chair for a nap.

So, I posted to a couple of local email lists that we had a chicken looking for a new home, either with younger chickens that wouldn't harrass her, or in a pet home, since she's tame enough now that you can walk over to her and pick her up. Within 10 minutes I had a phone call and a new home was arranged. Hurray! I hope she'll do well there. It sounds like it will be a good fit.