Down to Four

Previously I'd blogged about how the puppies had 'played' with one of the chooks. Well, they hadn't learnt their lesson, they decided to mega-pluck a chook a few days ago. I found the yard strewn with feathers, but couldn't find a body. Nevertheless, Sarah and Jess were beaten with Michael's sandal. The chook came home that night with a bald spot near her tail.

The next morning, we discovered maggots crawling around her skin in the bald spot. Margaret scrubbed the flesh out with warm soapy water, hopefully killing the maggots.... but they were still there the next day. So I held Chicken Licken over the laundry tub while Michael syringed hydrogen peroxide over the wounds and scraped off dead flesh and maggots with his scalpel. And then I threw up. Not ashamed to admit that I did not like the smell of rotting flesh!!! Chicken Licken stayed in the laundry for two days - boy it stank!! By the second day, she was smelling less and had eaten some corn kernels, so we thought she might make it. But day three, she didn't eat at all and spent most of her time sleeping and shitting. So, that night I put her back with the chooks in the chook house. She seemed pleased to be back with them.

Yesterday morning, I opened up the chook house to find four chooks clammering to get out, and Chicken Licken extremely stiff and very definitely dead! And the valiant little thing had tried laying an egg before departing but cracked the shell.

So an elaborate funeral was held for her (she got dumped into a cardboard box and disposed of). We were going to belt the dogs around the head with the dead carcass but........ more of that on the next posting.

PS. that freakishly large egg the chicken licken laid a few weeks ago..... it was a triple yolker!!