Angry Chickens

My chickens were mad at me today. The rooster even fussed at me with his Martian voice -- "you are making me very angry".

What terrible thing did I do? I forgot to bring their morning oatmeal bowl. Oh chickeny distress! They were so flustered that for a minute I was worried they were going to explode like little feather bombs.

The followed me around the pen like they were expecting food to magically appear in my empty hands. The only one who was not upset about the missing treat was Robin.

Robin was on the nest when I went in the coop. I reached in for the eggs and she gave me the foulest look! She was absolutely furious. She gave me a peck and then huffed out of the nest box and stood there bawk-bawk-BAWKing at me. Then after one last application of the stink eye, she flounced out of the coop.

I came back later in the day and brought a hammer for self defense, but they graciously refrained from tearing me to bits. As I nailed more weather protection into place, my notorious helper came over to supervise. That touched off a flurry of rubberneckers, gawkers, and helpers -- all climbing on to the roll of wire I had laid down next to me. One moment a worksite, next a carnival.

When I went into the coop for evening egg collection, they all lined up inside the coop and stared at me expectantly. It was too early, but they were so sure I would make amends that they came inside anyway.

I took pity on them and tossed a bowl of Black Oil Sunflower Seed into the coop. Oh the chickeny joy! They were so happy they did not notice when I closed the pop door. They noticed as I tried to slip away though. So it was back to the stink eye for me.

Doctor Dolittle saved the day, sending a care package of oatmeal and scratch. I slipped the treats in through the pop door and stood back to watch. Oh the chickeny joy! They were so relieved to get their oatmeal that they forgave my terrible, terrible lapse in judgement.

Whew! Close call.

Sick chickens

My chickens developed Fowl Pox when they were about 4 months old. They had nasty looking sores on their wattles.

I was sick with worry, but everything I read seemed to indicate it was not a big deal. "Endemic in Texas" or "full recovery" or "active virus for weeks after recovery" or "no useful vaccine after infection". Problem or not?

Once I got my head around the idea that vaccines would not help me, I decided on supportive care. The idea behind supportive care is that you keep the bird healthy enough to let their immune system fight off the illness.

I bought some liquid vitamins to put in the water. The chickens were not impressed. Besides, it was supposed to be dumped out every day . Rather than risk having the water go bad if it was not changed every 1440 minutes, I decided on supportive food.

I bought a bag of Manna Pro "Gamebird/Showbird feed". This stuff had lots of protein and vitamins and did not go bad overnight. Plus, the chickens liked to eat it.

This helped a bit, but I felt the need to turn it up to 11. Enter oatmeal.

Feeding the flock uncooked oatmeal with plain yogurt and honey really turned things around. The birds loved the oats and slurped it down in mere minutes. (I also liked to watch them try to wipe the yogurt off their beaks).

Yay oatmeal! This stuff was such a hit that the birds started treating me like a rock star. It got to be such a hassle to get in through the gate that I took to putting the oats out before opening the coop. The flock would calm down once they got their oat fix.

Two months later there is no evidence of Fowl Pox.