It had been quite a while since an eagle had made a move on one of our chickens out in the pasture.
Despite having two good roosters on the job, I suppose it was inevitable that it would happen at some point. So many raptors around here. Everyone looking for a tasty morsel to take home for dinner.
At least I was home when it happened. I was upstairs carding some wool and I heard the commotion.
Raced out to the pasture to see the attack in progress, and managed to disrupt the eagle’s plan by causing a scene like the crazy chicken woman that I am. 😉
No tasty morsel for you!
I collected up my poor chicken and went about assessing the damage. She’s intact, but her back is pretty ripped up. She’s a really healthy, feisty chicken, so I hope that will give her an advantage in recovering from this attack. I’ve got her wounds dressed with gauze and covered with a chicken saddle. She’ll have to stay in a crate for a while so i can get her healed up. She’s not thrilled about that.
But having another unexpected special-needs chicken meant that I had to come to terms with the fact the my poor gimpy chicken wasn’t responding to physical therapy, and was growing weaker. I felt like I’d done as much for her as I could, and it wasn’t going anywhere. So I had to admit failure and let her go. That was hard.
So one chicken saved, one chicken buried. Enough pasture drama for one weekend.
The peace is restored, for now.
When I lose one of my hens, I put her on the roof of our woodshed for the vultures. Everybody’s gotta eat!
wow. like your own private Tower of Silence, eh?
I am sorry. As you know, we have been struggling with multiple poultry predators recently. I hope she makes it and dory for the one you said goodbye to.
Yep. All the meat eaters out there love chicken. I hope she makes it too- I’ve found that chickens do have a remarkable ability to heal, but can be somewhat difficult patients 😉