Ashley

When we got our Chickens, Debbie and Ashley were only a few weeks old, with Debbie being the smaller one of the two. The journey from then to now, has been a long and hard one for Debbie. Bailey, our white hen, decided that she would pick on Debbie and would relentlessly peck at Debbie until she drew blood.

So we had to remove Bailey and watch Alice with the two younger chicks to see how she treated them. After a few days we reintroduced Bailey back into the chicken coop / run and it was obvious from the outset that Alice was now the top hen and well in control. Bailey did attempt to peck Debbie, but Alice quickly put a stop to it. – The black patch on Debbie’s head is one of the places Bailey pecked relentlessly, until we quickly removed Bailey from the other chickens.

A few days after Bailey was back living amongst the other hens, Debbie suddenly developed a loss of balance and the inability to stand or use her left leg and wing. No matter what we tried or how much we watched the hens, we could not work out why Debbie was suddenly this way.

After much research and attention to Debbie’s needs, we decided to isolate the two younger chicks from the bigger hens and put food and drink within easy access for Debbie, so she did not have to wander so far and try and use her leg / wing.

Slowly but surely, Debbie started to get better, leading us to believe that she had possibly injured her wing and leg. After around a week, Debbie is almost as good as gold. She is back walking on both legs, standing to feed and her wings are both in active use.

We have now allowed the little chicks back out with the bigger hens. We still watch Bailey with the chicks – So far so good, they all seem to be getting along well. Which is great news.

Ah the fun of raising chickens!