It was a peaceful Saturday morning. My hens were pecking fresh patch of grass in the free range area that I made with a couple of tomato stakes and a bird net. I was on my desk, making a garden plan. It seemed to be a nice quiet weekend… until this happened.
I suddenly heard the hen’s noise, alarming. I quickly left my desk and went straight to backyard. Somehow, the dog gate was half open and one hen was running in the dog area. Understandably, the dogs were so excited and chasing after it. The Chicken area, on the other hand, the tomato stakes were knocked down and the bird net was laying flat on the lawn. I saw one hen under the net from a distance, not moving. A big fear grew in my head skyrocket. But I had to rescue the first hen in the dog area. I shouted at the dogs and run to the hen. The hen managed to fly and rescued herself on the top of 1m high brick wall. I grabbed her gently under my arm and placed back in the coop. Luckily the hen still had flying wings to rescue herself. I was thinking about trimming them other day, but not anymore. I rather let hens fly than getting caught by dogs. Now, I quickly went close to the other hen that was laying on the lawn, not moving. I was scared, very scared to touch. My husband was there before me and when his careful finger touched her, she moved!!! Yes!! she’s still alive!! Thank God for that!! She was tangled up in the bird net, and just couldn’t move. It was wise decision to sit there still until rescued. I hold her under my arm gently and started untangling her. She didn’t move a muscle while getting untangled. I nursed her with gentle pats and put her back in the coop. Both hens were in a great shock. They stayed in the nesting box, didn’t come out to the small run area underneath. I stayed near the coop, keeping them company while the dogs were getting a big lecture from my husband. When he came to the coop to check on the hens and me, we discussed what we could do about the shock that hens just had. We soon turned on the computer and looked for the remedies. The quickest solution we found was, keeping them in a small, dark, warm area with their favorite treats and drink available near by. The hens were in the nesting boxes so they were already in the small dark place. They haven’t been introduced to treats yet (since we only had them for one week) but I cut a small piece of watermelon, added to their food. Then it was placed in the perch area, which is next to the nest boxes, relatively small and dark. I placed water next to it too. With my husband’s idea, we filled a small coke bottle with warm water and place in the perch area to keep them warm. It wasn’t a cold day but we wanted to make sure that the hens were warm. We checked the hens every 15 minutes also, while we still searched for other shock remedies on the Internet. After while, one hen started eating the food, and the other one joined not long after. This is a good sign. (although the watermelon attracted no interest, it had been pushed to the side.) There was no external injuries I could see on the hens, but we decided to get natural pain relief, arnica from local health shop. We could only find it in an ointment form, for external use. It apparently comes in tablets for internal use too. Homeopathy shops probably have tablets but we didn’t know such shops nearby. In case of internal injuries, we made remedy food, which is mix of rolled oats, boiled egg yolk, honey, and grated apple. The remedy food was placed in the perch area too. We added an extra lock to the dog gate.
We continued checking on the coop every half and hour. We only got the hens a week before but one week was enough to make us attached to them. I actually was surprised how attached my husband was. He was known to be a cat person since he was a boy. The chicken side of him seemed now awaken.
To our relieve, the hens came out to the small run area in the late afternoon. They looked still in shock and went back in the perch area after a short while. Then they came out again, went back in repeatedly. Finally the sunset settled them staying in the nest box for the day.
Next day, we found the remedy food was consumed really well. That eased our mind a lot. My husband was busy building a big frame for a chicken run. The new run is made of tough timbers and wire mesh, significant improvement from tomato stakes and a bird net. It was the last day of his holiday. His initial plan for this weekend was just to relax and do nothing. But the incident yesterday made him work on the chicken run all day. He didn’t care about his backache from the DIY work.
By the afternoon tea time, the new chicken run was completed. It is nice and tough, safe from dogs. As soon as the door was open, both hens came out to the new run area. They seemed recovered fairly well. They continued enjoying the new run till the sunset, while my husband and I were calming down our overstimulated brains. By dinner time, the whole household went back to the normal, peaceful atmosphere.
Thinking back now, this incident was a good lesson. All pets in my household are like children to us. Despite the owner’s good care, they do make troubles sometimes. All we can do as owners is do our best to deal with the troubles and not to make the same trouble happen again. We were lucky that the trouble wasn’t severe this time. I think my husband and I handled the situation relatively well. How we dealt this weekend added a bit of confidence to our parenting ability. As my husband read Hairy Maclary story to my 5 month pregnant tummy, I felt our parenting senses were growing on us and I felt confident about the arrival of our first baby.
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