A Dead Chicken

We throw our chickens a big bucket of rice to eat first thing in the morning and then again in the evening.  The chickens rush around, scratching, pecking, and eating.  Once they are done they meander out to the pasture to eat bugs, worms, tender grasses and other morsels to eat.  They also scratch through cow patties to find undigested grain or seeds to eat.  That doesn't sound appetizing to you or me, but a chicken loves it.  Then the hens convert all that gross stuff they eat into the delicious eggs with deep yellow colored yolks that we love to eat.

Our laying hens have long life spans.  They don't have to be worried about us butchering and eating them, because we grow Cornish Cross meat birds for that purpose.  They don't have to worry much about predators because the dogs around the perimeter keep the raccoons and possums at bay.  Hawks and owls seldom bother them because they've learned to be very watchful and when they see one circling overhead, they run quickly to the barn for shelter.  We do lose a few roosters, but that loss is due to fights between roosters competing for their place in the pecking order.  Mostly, they live happy and carefree.  

At any given time, however, we have a few birds walking with a limp.  100% of the time the limp was due to them being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  That place is under the feet of an 800-900 pound cow.  A chicken that weighs around 3-4 pounds is never going to win that battle.  Cows are notorious wasteful eaters.  As they eat their dairy ration during morning the cows drop the feed pellets and/or grain out of their mouths while they are chewing.  The chickens foolishly gather around and snatch up the feed.  They are so focused on eating that they don't pay attention to the cows' feet. Or the chickens will just get in the cows' way.  Cows don't worry about what's underfoot, they just plod along en route to their destination.  Inevitably, we'll hear a squawk and a hen will limp away with a hurt foot.

Most of the time, they heal up on their own.  Sometimes, though, the injury is fatal.

RIP Barred Rock Hen

Every so often we'll find a dead hen and it is for this reason the each year we purchase some "replacement hens" to take the place of those birds who have died of natural causes or from accident throughout the previous year.  We're expecting a delivery of day-old chicks for this purpose in about two weeks.

It is sad when we lose a bird, but the bird is is not wasted.  She's buried in the garden.  As we posted in the Trench Composting Blog Post, the hen will continue providing for us long after she's gone.  In this case she'll give us some good vegetables instead of eggs.

The Final Resting Place

You would think that the other chickens would learn from their feathered friend's demise, but this doesn't appear to be the case.  Even though we shoo them away from getting around the cows' feet, they continue to put themselves in risky situations.  They get distracted, lose focus, and put themselves in harm's way and sometimes they pay a high price for making a poor choice - sort of like people.