Dog Kennel Days

This is when the real fun had just began! I removed Puffer from the barn and retro'd the dog kennel building up by the house for her.  I went out every night and sat doing my homework with her so that I could make sure that she was eating.  She developed the habit of flying up and sitting on my shoulder in the cold while I would read. I started buying lettuce and berries specially for her, and  I found creative ways to get her to eat Calf-Manna. Her tail went up and she gained weight.  She was quite content until I tried reintegrating her with the flock.  She stood at the chicken wire wall crying out (she's quite vocal) until I caved and took her back to the house.  At this point it was just an extra stop on the chore rounds. Once I was sure that she wouldn't run off into the woods, I allowed her her freedom all day while I was at work.  But she would waddle quickly down the sidewalk every afternoon to welcome me back home.

Everything was going pretty good for Puffer living in the dog kennel building all winter long.  But when Spring hit, she suddenly started moving her perches higher and higher.  And she was waiting on the ready for the door to open every morning so that she could get out.  Strange behavior, but she's always been strange! 

It took a while to figure out...but Luther was back.  Who's that? Luther is a four foot black rat snake! We believe that Luther actually attempted to eat her while she was roosted at night by the marks left around her head, and her all out refusal to re-enter the dog kennel building.  This is Luthers' shed skin I found later.

So, she doesn't want to live with the other chickens, she refuses to go back in the building with Luther, what do I do with her??

This is my chicken Puffer.  She is the first Araucana chicken we ever got, and she was actually an accident!  I had wanted a silver laced Wyandot but when my husband went to pick the chicks up, the silver laced weren't available.  The woman at the counter gave him a couple of "mystery chicks" and indicated to him that one of them was really special.

It was soon apparent that Puffer was the special one.  Not only did she have a funny looking 'puffy face' but she didn't scatter with the rest of the chicks when you walked up to the box.  She was always there at the opening, nosing around at what you were doing, and she started eating out of the cup before we poured it.  All of the rest of them scrambling as far away as possible...she never became part of the flock.

After a few months of her coming to the chicken wire wall and talking to us, I decided to pick her up and talk back to her.

This is us relaxing on the bench in front of the barn back then.  For a while then, I started becoming suspiscious that she was losing weight.  I feared that she was being bullied.  I read up on the matter, and found out that her tail never being 'up' was a symptom of a sick or unhappy chicken (I, stupidly had thought it was a characteristic of this strange breed we got on accident). So...I did the only thing I could do and moved her out...for what we thought would be short term.