Sicken Chicken

I confess - I'm not that great a chicken-keeper. I do the best I can, keeping them fed, watered and clean.  They've got a big range and during the non-vegetable growing months, they get to run around the yard for half the day. The crowd I have now are pretty mature. I'd say the oldest of them are at least six years old. And they decline, especially if they are the ones bred for intensive egg production.

This past week there is one hen that has been relentlessly bullied. The last straw was a couple of days ago when I let them out in the morning and this persecuted hen was first out with the others raging out behind, pushing her up against the wire fence and pecking at her. Horrible to see. It was time to separate her from the others. But what to do? There is a small shed we use for situations like this but swallows are nesting there and the young ones are days from leaving the nest. We couldn't shut the door to keep the persecuted chicken safe. The first night she stayed in the log shed but she was lonely and miserable there. We discussed euthanasia but neither of us wanted to do that. All today she toodled about eating just enough, drinking just enough. She tried to settle for the night in Hannah's place but that wasn't a goer. The log shed wasn't an option either so she's in with the pigs. Sadly, Rusty scoffed her grub. I never knew he liked sunflower hearts, and it surprised me that he could get his big piggy snout into such a tiny bowl. 

When I last looked in she was resting beside Lily. Poor hen. Her own kind won't leave her alone and she finds solace with two pigs around fifty times her size. She might be dead in the morning, maybe naturally, maybe crushed. One thing's for sure - she's safe from Foxy.

No pictures of pigs with hen for it was too dark. So just Rusty and Lily sans chicken.