Here is "cheeks". She is one of our araucana hens (the ones that lay the beautiful blue eggs)...and she is hurt. When we came back from a weekend away (with chicken babysitter left in charge), something must have happened to cheeks (by NO fault of said chicken babysitter.) I'm actually surprised it's taken this long for something to happen to one of our birds. Our hens absolutely LOVE to roam free on the farm. And we really believe in free range hens BUT it does increase their risk of getting injured or killed.
We don't know exactly what happened to "cheeks" but J thinks her leg is broken. Here is a picture of her post farmer J intervention. J attempted to re-set her broken leg and put it in this "cast". This whole process involved lots of hydrogen peroxide, antibiotic cream, gauze and, of course, red electrical tape.
Cheeks is still alive and, we hope, going to heal. J changed her bandage today. Her prognosis is still "guarded." We are keeping Cheeks in the shade, putting food and water close to her and sending her lots of love.
Ironically, we were just saying how 18 hens are way too many (mainly because we can't stand all their poop, especially when they (literally) poop on our welcome mat) and here we are doing everything we can to save 1 of 18. I'm sure we are being silly (and probably would be laughed at by many "real" farmers) but we really don't care.
I will keep you updated on Cheeks!
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