Our injured hen has made an amazing recovery. She, along with the rest of the flock, had been attacked by a fox. She was the worst off by far, unable to move that much. She was able to lay an egg on the second or third day after the injury. If a hen has an egg on the way and is unable to lay it, then this can cause death; thus the appearance of the egg was a welcome site.
After the first week of recovery, she was able to visit the other chickens for short durations. I am sure that this helped her mentally, even if Rusty did attempt to get a bit amorous with her.
Finally after two weeks since the attack, her health improved enough so that she was able to roost with the others. So Rusty now has his full harem of girls back.
We got some coloured bands for the hens several days ago. We gave the colour red to the injured hen as it seemed appropriate. We also have orange, blue, and green bands. We have decided that these colours are now the names for the hens.
Glad she made it! Love those happy endings. They sound like a hardy, healthy lot. :)
ReplyDeleteI've been wanting to include the New Hampshires into my collection at some point, because I hear they're a good layer - like the Rhode Island Reds.
Time and money though hey. Glad I read your blog. My sister used to live in Di'agular, with the road to Mt Mee running at the back of her property. Beautiful area. :)
I too was tempted by the New Hampshires. However given it was my first time keeping chickens, I thought that the slightly more common RIRs were a better way to go. So far I have been extremely impressed with how hardy they are. We also have wedge tailed eagles around, and while they occasionally circle the property, they have not made any attempts on our free ranging chickens thus far. I figure that the size of the Rhode Island Red breed must make them a bit more cautious about attacking.
ReplyDeleteYes this area is very nice. We are fortunate now that the D’Aguilar National Park now stretches from The Gap to Woodford. Thus our views of Mount Samson and the D’Aguilar range should be preserved for a long time to come.