Day 688 Humming Hen

 

Another busy day around the coop. One of my new girls started making a constant humming noise, the first time Tim and I had ever heard such a thing. It may have been her noise making that chummed a raccoon to the coop in the night, fortunately Tim went outside and was able to scare it off before it could break into the pen. Tim suggested that the chicken had gone insane and that we'd need to put her down. I was a bit surprised by his acceleration from, all is well to channeling Dr. Kevorkian so did a bit of research before sentencing our girl to death row. After a bit of digging I found an article that suggested she might have something obstructing her airway. The recommended cure, to feed her bread soaked in olive oil. The oil would hopefully work its way through her throat clearing the obstruction, worth a try. First I had to separate my humming hen from the other chickens, who would undoubtably gobble up all the carefully saturated bread. Once I had her isolated with only a few other chickens, I placed the bread inside and watched as the four hens happily devoured each piece. Within no time my girl was breathing freely, breathing quietly and happily returned back to the flock. I was quick to tell Tim she wasn't insane after all, so spare her the axe. Now we'll just have to keep an eye out for that darn raccoon, isn't it always something? I bet people don't realize the care and concern there is with raising hens, eating their eggs oblivious of the effort it has taken the hen and the chicken owner to produce such glorious results. Each egg is a small reminder of a happy, healthy hen. Several of my girls have aged out of laying and are now  living out the remainder of their lives as freeloaders. Hens lay a finite amount of eggs in their lifetime, you can force production (shortening the years of laying) through the winter with lights or let them take a break, but they will only produce eggs for about 3-4 years max. My new girls should be generating eggs by September and with seven new layers I'll be in good shape for breakfast...as long as we can keep that raccoon at bay!