If you follow us on Facebook you’ve probably seen our recent chicken updates. If you haven’t been, then boy do I have a lot to share!
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| Running Speckled Sussex |
While we were in Wyoming one of our Speckled Sussex hens decided she no longer wanted to hang out with the rest of the gang and started jumping fences (we had clipped everyone’s wings to help combat this but it didn’t seem to help). At first it was just the 4′ fence to the chicken yard. But soon that changed. Jeanette found the hen being tormented by the neighbor’s dog in the yard next door after having scaled the 6′ fence. The hen, now named Escape Chicken, had lost most of her tail feathers to Jasper, the Australian Shepherd. Jeanette rescued Escape Chicken and brought her home. She continued to fly into the garden every day until we got back.
When we got back one of the first things we did was clip the wings of all of our birds. It didn’t make a difference to Escape Chicken. Tom witnessed Escape Chicken flying over the fence.
Tuesday morning at about 5am George, our resident rooster, found his voice. It wasn’t very loud on Tuesday. Wednesday was another story and realized that we needed to nip it in the bud before our neighbors complained. The last thing we need is the City raining hellfire down upon us. On the drive home from work Tom and I (we carpool) decided that George was going to go. And so was Escape Chicken.
Funny thing. We get home just before dark so everyone should have been roosting. Everyone except Escape Chicken. She was nowhere to be found. She wasn’t in the coop. She wasn’t in the nest boxes. She wasn’t in the goat barn. And she wasn’t in the garden. Where ever she had gone, she was no longer in our yard and had not made it home. We couldn’t see feathers or any sign of foul play in our neighbors’ yard. Maybe she was airlifted out? But we don’t have hawks in our vicinity (a good thing about having a lot of crows – they keep hawks away). We chalked it up to her getting wind of our plan and running away – or Logan and Maggie, the French Mastiff and mutt opposite of Jasper and his buddy Quinn, had gotten her. Oh well, she was dumb enough to not stay away from the dogs.
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| Jeanette holding George in a cone |
We set up to slaughter George who was fantastically calm up until the end. The stoicism he showed was amazing. It’s like they resign themselves to their fate and leave this world peacefully. If anyone is interested on how to slaughter chickens I am willing to do a post about it with photos. I just want to make sure it’s requested before I post something that’s graphic.
Yesterday afternoon Jeanette found Escape Chicken. She was back with Jasper. Yes, chickens are dumb. Incredibly dumb. And this time she had given up more than just some tail feathers to Jasper. Her entire back is stripped bare. She’s now in her own crate with food and water. She’s going to remain there until this weekend when we slaughter her.
**UPDATE**
I got home from work to find that Escape Chicken had escaped her crate. I think she has super powers…
PDF Tags: chickens
Poor Escape Chicken!
FWIW my experience with Sussexes is that they really, really want to go and free-range. They see an obstacle to their desire and they will always clear it.
I have a question, Rachel: do you trim on both wings or just one? If you trim just one, they really can't fly. Too lopsided/spin in circles, etc. Info for your next escape artist I guess!
She's not so much flying over fences as she's jumping over them. She's light enough still to be able to get really high. I think she's finding "steps" over the taller fence. Jumps onto something leaning against it and jumps to the top.
I have ten chickens, but I could not kill them. I eat chicken, but not my.
They will did of old age.
If I see blood, I will be sick.
A Fowl Friday of your own! When you clip the wings on your birds, do you clip both, or just one side? For some birds I find it helps to clip one wing, and throw them off balance. As the primaries grow back out on that side, I then clip the opposite. Although I expect your Houdini bird would escape regardless now she's had a taste of the big wide world.
Sorry about George, he was a handsome chap. If you do a slaughtering chickens post, I recommend not trying to document it in the rain
Our turkey post was devoid of photos courtesy of the repeated rain squalls! We'll try again next time.
We clip both but tonight we'll clip one shorter.
And here I was looking at Speckled Sussexes in the Murray McMurray site today… Eeeek! Maybe I'll go for the Partridge Rocks instead.
Other than the escapist behavior, was she a relatively normal hen? That is a beautiful shot of her w/ the tomato horn worm.
Did you use that traffic cone for dispatching George? I rigged one out of a gallon milk jug for dispatching Norm(a), but maybe I'll find a stray traffic cone before it's time to remove Mildred from the roost this month.
@Sara, the Rocks would probably be better as they are heavier birds. I'm pretty unimpressed with the Speckled Sussexes. All the sites I had read said they were the quintessential table bird prior to the development of the Cornish X. Ours are much smaller than our other birds of the same age. I've heard they are good layers though, but ours won't last that long.
We did use the cone for dispatching George. My husband cut too much off of it though so it's now too big for our hens. There are always lost cones about to snag.
Hi Rachel!
I'd like to see those pics because I need to learn to humanely kills chickens asap. I have two that need. to. go. Can you send to me if you don't want to post them? Or would you allow observers next time you need to kill one? Thanks so much!
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