Chicken Skin

A week of clean up and it is done, the bathroom still smells like smoke, but it's slight compared to the beginning of the week. Buck & the girls have been lurking near doorways and slipping in to the house to look for more interesting shelter whenever the door is left open for more than a minute.  This goes double for the van where I found 3 of them yesterday clustered around the pedals when I returned from a brief trip back to the house to get my wallet.  

They were having a conversation about something, but stopped when they saw me, excuse me if I'm suspicious about their plans.

For the last three days they have been hiding under things and muttering, clustering around the bases of bushes, and I sometimes hear Buck giving the warning "chuck"  to the hens as the crows fly overhead and watch them.  I didn't think that crows were a problem for chickens, but perhaps they are looking at Barbie's raw back and wondering if she will soon be available.

I've decided that she has to be isolated from Buck for awhile, her back is even more naked , and she's had parts of her wings stripped, she's going to dislike being in a separate section from the others, but it's got to happen. 

 She knows this, or suspects something, and has gone from being an easy going approachable chicken to one who stays very close to Buck , occasionally using him as shelter.  This reminds me of women who when the neighbours call the police on their abusive boyfriends, deny that there is any problem, and refuse to press charges.  We all know how that turns out. 

 From what was going on with Mae last year, I know that it is a matter of time before the other hens peck her until she bleeds, and I don't want to know what happens if that's not addressed, but I foresee another unwelcome chicken horror story.

I'll just have to put on a helmet and go in at night and fish her out.  It must be taken into account that Buck at least can be roused to some show of energetic male protective behaviour even in the middle of the night, and he roosts at my eye height.

Bette has been unwilling to come out and forage during the day, because she is sitting on eggs.  "This is how it is done"  She told me.  She's right, and paying attention is the only way it works.