Reviews by Mother-Hen-Michele

Gorgeous! Both the coop and the article

Well explained and extremely well thought out.

The only problem... It makes readers want to build a new coop

Excellent article, love the references.

I agree that we can see the effect of some calming chemistry when they let us cuddle them when they are feeling poorly (nature would tell them to hide in an unreachable spot) and then close their little eyes gently and snuggle the face & beak into their feathers.

It probably starts with our feeding them and not using that as bait. They calm to our touch after repeated interactions.

Unfortunately the ones most comfortable with touch are usually the ones who had the most health issues (or got picked on by the others) and we had to be their mother-hen

Perfect article, well documented, excellent clear pictures and a quick read that gets right to the point.

Cause-effect-treatment and successful outcome.

Excellent!

During COVID I learned a few things... (The kinds of things that don't makee look too bright to those who already knew those things) ... And I thought maybe I could spin it into a book. My idea was to interview others who can laugh at themselves and learned a little humility (in a healthy way). I think I'll start by interviewing you.

When we do this, my first question will be:

Tell me why you dubbed your sweet feather baby "bat-crap" crazy... I feel there may be something there to explore

this is the best written article I have ever read. I commend your tenderness and commitment to her care. Most sincere gratitude for your documenting this as it happened. It not only tells me that it is possible to care for this type of injury, but it deepens my commitment to checking on their comfort during cold snaps. I live in an area where the cold takes victims, and sometimes I hear the voices of people who live in warmer areas screaming that we are TOO attentive to their discomfort. But really, I would rather err on the side of spoiling them, than having to deal with this kind of injury. The "down-side" of having a spoiled hen is easier to deal with.

I have seen hens in this area (not kept by real farmers who keep their coop inside a barn in winter, but by chicken keepers like me who are just keeping pets) who are missing combs and toes. I know some of those hens have really suffered because there was no one giving the level of care you gave your girl. They just left them in the coop to survive or die, no pain-killers or wraps, or baths. Now seeing what you had to do to keep her comfortable, I feel even more for those girls.

I also fully understand why she has a place indoors at night. There is something that happens when we have a girl whose life is in our hands for a long while. Before having chickens I would not have imagined this bond, but now I live it. Pictured is Robin Hood, she is 3 yrs old this week, and is currently living on my desk, she is so used to needing hospice stay that she knows the house routine. Except for picking up poo on the floor, she is the same in the house as the 9yr old dog. They are both napping next to me as I type this. She will go back out to the coop in a few days, when she is fully recovered from her current issues, but until then, she is my house-hen. (yes, she is spoiled, so what? Not as though I am raising a spoiled human who will be a pain to others in society, she is just a hen whom other hens envy a little, but the others get the same level of care when they need it.)

thanks again for the article, I read it to the very end, I was even able to look at the pictures because the text gave the images a real context. (and were not gratuitous gore)

all the best to you, and all your girls.

Thank you for this, could you clarify a little? What decides if you are giving it one or twice a day and if you do 1 or 3 days? The bottom dose would be once (one dose for one day) and the top one 6 doses (twice a day for 3 days) How do you know where you are on the scale ?

Also, it says 'in addition to medicated water'. Can I do just a drench ? They have streams going all through the garden at this time of year, so some drink almost nothing from the water bowl and others prefer the bowl, so I rather just skip the bowl and not try to stop them running around.

... also, if, by some cruel act of fate you have one duck or chicken that is lonely because she is alone, you sometimes have to get a new baby.

For example I had 2 ducks and one passed to the magical pond in heaven, the remaining duck was lonely so I had to get a duckling. But you know sometimes babies don't survive so you need to get 2. Also, babies need to be at least 3 to make a little sleeping pile otherwise they sometimes just die from being cold. You would not want the lonely duck to have 2 new babies and then they die! She just lost her sister and would be devastated to have a baby die too. So we lost 1 duck and now we have 4, which is actually just 2 because we are replacing the one who died.

Lovely