I came up with the brilliant idea of training the chickens to go into the run where they will be secure, by coming out with a yellow cup filled with dried mealworms. My plan worked for a while.
Just when I thought the chickens would be all excited about the time of day when the worms would be offered, either they changed their minds or lost interest in the worms.
I managed the other day, to get 7 of the chickens back into the run using the worm bribe. But Esther had a mind of her own. She either doesn't care for dried meal worms, or was so absorbed in whatever it was she was doing that she didn't notice.
I thought I could outsmart her by putting the cup holding the dried worms under her beak. Nothing happened.
My next thought was to get her into the coop first. So, today I just picked her up from her dust bath and put her in the coop. Of course, I am hoping that all the others see the cup holding the worms and go into the run when I put the cup inside the run.
It didn't happen today. Since Esther was inside the run, I had to keep the door shut or else she would find her way back outside the run and I would have to figure out how to get her back in. Try getting 7 chickens back into the run with the door shut!
Usually Ginger is the first one to come in and eat the worms. She is a selfish chicken! But this time, I caught her and put her inside the run. And this is what happened to my arm after I got her put in.
I didn't realize anything had happened until I saw all this blood on my arm. I got out some melaleuca essential oil and put it on. Since I was in a hurry, I couldn't tend to it.
It's not that the cuts were painful or anything like that. But some of them were puffy. When I got back home, I cleaned the cuts up and put coconut oil, more melaleuca oil, and oil of oregano on the cuts.
Ginger. My favorite chicken. How could she do this to me????
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| Ginger is one of the first chickens I got. She is, at this time, the biggest. The 2 Barred Rocks are about the same age, and they are almost as big as Ginger. Ginger is the one with the big red comb. And we all know that it is possible that Ginger might really be...George. |
