Fowl Not Foul - June 2000

On June 1st I found some scratch and bite marks on the outside of the henhouse door. A predator had been trying to get to the hens during the night. The bite marks looked suspiciously like the marks of a fox, as they were about a foot up the side of the henhouse. I checked the fencing for holes which the predator could have made, but found nothing. I decided to leave the geese out at night, in the hope that the two large and aggressive bids would discourage an urban fox who would probably rather raid someone's dustbin than take on a pair of fighting fit geese.

The beginning of June brought some lovely warm weather. The neighbours allowed us to use the steep bottom portion of their garden for the hens, and they took back the flatter, upper part of their garden to convert into a playground for their young son. The hens liked exploring their new grassy area, and especially enjoyed pulling the tasty seedheads off the long flowering grasses.

Above left: Little Wing (the Jersey Giant) and Nicad (the ex-battery hen) . All heads down, searching for goodies of the grub, bug and worm kind...

Darwin, who had gone broody on 24th May, and Roadkill, who had gone broody on 27th May, were both still broody.

Below: Ashley (the Exchequer Leghorn) and Professor Mendel (the ex-battery hen) .

I felt sorry for Alkacell, having to be confined to the house for most of the time wearing her big cumbersome leg bandage. So whenever I went into the garden I brought her with me. I supervised her so that none of the other fowl couldn't come and hassle or attack her. Chickens are ruthless creatures, and will usually attack any bird which looks slightly different, or is behaving strangely in any way. I placed Alkacell in the new grassy area which the rest of the flock hadn't fully recognised as their territory yet. I hoped that this would prevent any viciousness toward the injured bird. When the other birds saw Alkacell with her leg bandaged, they stared at her amazedly. Nicad and 9-Volt approached the closest, and peered at the bandage, stretching their necks toward it so that they could get the best view of it without having to move too near to the wierd object. They were so phased out by seeing the bandaged Alkacell that they gave her a wide berth. This allowed Alkacell some peace and quiet while she pecked at the grass and dandelion leaves, and enjoyed the sunshine. She even lay on her side and spread her wing for a quick sunbathing session !

During her time in the house, the injured hen quickly realised that human food tasted much, much better than chicken food. Like an untrained dog, she stared unblinkingly at the humans eating their wondrously tasty dinners with strange metal, claw-like impliments. If she was lucky, she would be thrown a scrap of bacon fat or her favourites, a large forkful of rice or a pinch of grated cheese. When presented with such a tasty treat, she would cluck enthusiastically, and eat it all as fast as she possibly could, carefully finding and picking up every morsel she spilt. When she had finished, she would stare up at the humans again, cluck, and try to make her way up onto the settee to gain access to the plates of food the humans had.

On the morning of 6th June, Alkacell laid an egg, and then went to the Vet again to have her leg checked. Unfortunately the dressing wasn't ready to come off, as still the top fracture of her leg hadn't healed sufficiently. So Alkacell was given another bandage, this time a sky blue one.

Left: Alkacell wearing her smart new leg bandage.

Alkacell got used to her new bandage quickly, and the weather was so good that I decided to bring her out into the garden with me. When I placed her on a patch of bare earth, she lay on her side and pecked at the dry earth - she was trying to dustbathe. Feeling sorry for her, I picked her up and took her to the flock's most popular dustbath, a dry ashy area where a bonfire had been a couple of months earlier. Immediately, she sat down as best she could with her immobilised leg, and started to dustbathe.

Before long, Professor Freud noticed Alkacell and strutted over to her. She raised her hackles and lifted her head as high as she could, staring down at Alkacell angrily. Alkacell stood up and raised her hackles back. This was obviously Freud's favourite dustbath, and she didn't want anyone else invading it!! Before a fight could start, I shooed Freud away so that Alkacell could finish dustbathing in peace.

Below: Two pictures of Alkacell enjoying a good dustbath.

Below: Professor Mendel (front) and Professor Freud (back) sunbathing in the long grass on 6th June.

Alkacell laid eggs in her comfortable nest under the chair on 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th, of June.

By 11th June little Roadkill had given up being broody. She returned to the rest of the flock, leaving Professor Darwin in the nestbox to continue her broodiness alone.

On 13th June Alkacell had another visit to the Vet, to see how her leg was doing. This time the Vet removed Alkacell's blue bandage completely, and examined the leg. He found that there was still a tiny, tiny bit of movement in the upper break, and placed the hen on the floor of the consulting room to see how she coped without the bandage. As soon as Alkacell realised that her leg was free, she stared at it intensely, clucked, and eagerly started to preen it to relieve the itching she must have felt over the past few weeks with the big bandage on. She managed to take a few steps putting weight on the unbandaged leg, before busily preening it again. After some discussion with another Avian Vet, it was declared that Alkacell would not need her bandage any more. Her exercise would have to be restricted for a week, then she'd have to go back to the Vet for another progress check.

Alkacell was delighted to have her leg back again. She took great pleasure in doing all the things she couldn't do properly with the restrictive bandage on, which prevented her from bending her leg. Now she could sit down properly, lie on her right side, scratch her ears, flap her wings vigorously without losing balance, dustbathe throroughly and walk (with a limp). The leg had healed fairly well overall - it wan't completely straight any more, and the hind toe was immobile, but the leg worked enough for her to get about on it.

As the week went on, Alkacell got more and more ambitious with her walking activities. She would walk from one end of the kitchen to the other, looking in every nook and cranny she could reach to satisfy her curiosity, and of course, because she wanted to exploit her new-found ability. She found a soft piece of material under a chair, and made a nest there especially to lay her eggs in. She also decided to sleep there every night. On some days I even found her in the living room, exploring and picking up food which the chipmunks had dropped. The Vet had advised me that Alkacell's activity should be restricted to avoid stressing the leg too much, so I confined the hen to a cage when she became too active. She laid eggs in her comfortable nest of material under the chair on 14th, 15th, 18th and 19th June.

On 20th June Alkacell had her final appointment at the Vet. He was pleased with her progress, and declared her ready to go outside with the rest of the flock. I was worried about the disruption to the pecking order, so the Vet advised me to keep an eye on Alkacell at first, to check that she could get away from any attackers without hindrance from her leg. Also, I needed to keep an eye on the hen's feet. Her weight wasn't being distributed evenly down the healed leg because the break hadn't healed perfectly straight, and this had affected the weight distribution on her good leg too. The uneven weight distribution was causing pink patches on the main load-bearing areas of Alkacell's feet, and these had the potential to develop into red pressure sores. To avoid this, I was advised to get Alkacell a sheet of fake grass or Astroturf for her to stand on when her feet got sore. The Astroturf would ensure that the hen's bodyweight would be evenly loaded on all areas of the soles of her feet, thus relieving any soreness she felt. It would also be very easy to keep clean.

And so the time came for Alkacell to be introduced to the rest of the flock. I kept a close eye on her, as I knew that the other hens would notice that she was different-looking and attack her.

Chickens are cruel creatures, and will instinctively attack any flock member who looks sick or injured in any way. This behaviour has been programmed into the chickens' minds from the days when small flocks of their ancestors (the Red Jungle Fowl Gallus ferruginus, also known as Gallus Bankiva) ran wild in the rainforest jungles of the Far East, mainly Ceylon and Malaysia. In the wild, any slightly injured or sick bird would slow down the flock, and make it more noticable to predators. For this reason, sick and injured birds do not outwardly show their disability until they are affected so much that they cannot physically hide their condition. In this state they will be attacked by the rest of the flock and either driven away or killed, so as not to attract the attention of predators to the healthy birds of the flock.

Left: Red Jungle Fowl dustbathing.

So, under close supervision, I let Alkacell go into the garden. In placed her right in the centre of the fowl's main area, where she looked nervously around and wandered about for a few feet. Before long, she attracted the attention of 9-Volt, the second-in-command in the flock's pecking order. The top bird in the flock is White Tara, the Light Sussex, and the others in the top 5 are Nicad, Greencell and Professor Freud. Before her accident Alkacell was one of the top 4 birds in the flock, and was now determined to win back a place at the top of the flock. 9-Volt strutted toward Alkacell vocalising loudly with her head raised high and her feathers fluffed out, trying to look as intimidating as possible. But this didn't deter Alkacell, who also fluffed herself out and vocalised loudly back at 9-Volt. The two birds met aggressively, first standing chest-to-chest and staring each other out with their heads raised as highly as possible. They then started to viciously peck at each others' faces, 9-Volt aiming her pecks mainly at her opponent's comb, and Alkacell going mainly for 9-Volt's earlobes and throat, holding tight and pulling backward when she had a good grip. Though the fight was vicious, I didn't stop it because hens need to fight to sort out their pecking order. Pecking order is a vital part of chicken behaviour, and though this can cause violent fights at the beginning, once they have sorted the order out between themselves the flock can live in harmony with hardly any violence. Alkacell was evenly matched against 9-Volt, until their battle attracted the attention of the other birds. Nicad, Greencell and Professor Freud joined in the fight, but were all on 9-Volt's side. Poor Alkacell vailiantly continued to fight back, and wasn't going to back down. So I rescued Alkacell immediately, and brought her back into the house.

On the following morning I tried again, and brave Alkacell managed to win against 9-Volt and chase her away ........but then Duracell and Nicad and White Tara came to have a go as if to avenge 9-Volt, and Alkacell valiantly continued fighting and tried her best to give as good as she got. Even though she was totally overwhelmed by her rivals, she refused to back down. So I had to save poor Alkacell and bring her into the house again to recover. Once safe, she laid an egg. I couldn't believe how brave the little hen was, and was concerned that she may never be able to mix peacefully with the rest of the flock. Also on this day, I noticed that Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma was spending a lot of time in the nestbox, talking to the broody Professor Darwin. The Brahma was still in the nestbox at fowl bedtime, obviously intending to spend the night in the nestbox. So I placed her on a perch to discourage her, as it looked as though she had caught the urge to go broody like the Professor.

Again, on the following day (Wednesday 21st June, the Summer Solstice) I let Alkacell go into the garden. This time, Alkacell was able to spend a quiet five minutes without being challenged by another fowl. But her peace was shattered when Roadkill fought her. Roadkill, though small and light, is a quick and accurate fighter, and it didn't take long before Alkacell backed down and ran to me for safety. I left her in the garden for the next half hour while I did some weeding. I kept her in sight, and the rest of the flock seemed to be ignoring her. 'At last, they have acceped her', I thought with relief, and left Alkacell in the garden for the rest of the day, and brought her back into the house in the evening. I also brought Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma into the house for the night, as she had spent most of the day in the nestbox again, and had started to make the characteristic clucking noises of a broody hen. I was very disappointed in the Brahma, as she was due to compete at Stroud Show on 1st August, and would not be able to if she was broody, so I needed to set to work to try to stop her broodiness. I hoped that the shock of spending the night sitting on the top of a cage in the house would bring the Brahma back to her senses.

On Thursday 22nd June I came downstairs in the morning to find the Brahma sitting on the doormat, fluffed and clucking. She swore at me as I approached her, telling me that she was most definitely broody. There was only one thing for it - I had to resort to the old-fashined method of breaking up a broody hen. I attached a wire bottom to her cage, inserted sturdy well-filled food and water receptacles, placed the broody Brahma in the cage and hung the cage high up in the doorway of the garden shed. The wire bottom of the cage would encourage a cool draught to circulate around the broody's underside. Broodiness is encouraged by darkness, warmth, a comfortable nest and lack of food or water, so the opposite of this environment should discourage broody behaviour. I could only hope and wait. Also on this day after the Solstice I let Alkacell go into the garden for the day. A few fights occurred, as Alkacell had some peck wounds on her face and comb when I inspected her at chickens' bedtime, but there was nothing serious, unlike on the previous days. Unfortunately though, the little hen hadn't eaten for the whole day - her crop was empty. The other birds had obviously been keeping her away from the food. So Alkacell spent the night in the house again, and greedily ate a large bowl of pellets and grain in no time at all !. Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma spent the night in her elevated cage in the shed.

On the next morning I discovered the Brahma standing up straight in her cage, unfluffed and not clucking. I thought that she was cured, and let her out to be with the rest of the flock. I let Alkacell out in the garden again too, but when I went to check her later in the day, I found that she had peck wounds and an empty crop again - the others still weren't allowing her to feed. So I set up a large cage for her in a sheltered part of the garden and gave her food and water of her own. That way, she would be able to eat and drink without hassle from the others, and they would be able to get used to having her around without being able to attack her. When I went to check the hens into their houses in the evening, I discovered that Michael Caine Alan Partridge had made a nest for herself on the floor of the henhouse amongst the dung. She was fluffed and clucking - obviously broody again, so I banished her to the wire-bottomed cage hanging in the shed once more.

On 24th June, Alkacell laid another egg. She spent the day confined to her cage in the garden, and the broody Brahma spent the day confined to her suspended wire-bottomed cage. The Brahma remained in her cage for another day and night, until she stopped her broodiness on Monday 26th June. But I didn't let her out for another two days, just to make sure that she wasn't bluffing, as she had previously. Professor Darwin, however, was still broody - this was now her 32nd day of broodiness !

Over the past two weeks I had noticed that something had been coming into the garden at night. I suspected that the fox had returned, as the fence at the top corner of the garden (near the wild woodland) had been pushed up by something moving under it. This hadn't happened every night, and no more bite marks had been made on the henhouse. One day I even found that the invader had found some 'pot' eggs in the empty rabbit-hutch nestbox. It had chewed the eggs up, breaking three into pieces and carrying the fourth away. Each time I found that the fence had been pushed up, I replaced it and put some large pots in front of it, but the predator continued to invade.

On 28th June disaster struck. When I let the birds out in the morning, I discovered that Pseudo-Swan the Embden gander had been attacked. I noticed that he had blood on his right leg, and on further investigation I found a deep bite on his thigh, just four deep holes where the canine teeth had cut in. I took him to the Vet, who gave him an injection of antibiotics and a course of tablets. The Vet also put two staples in Pseudo's leg to hold the largest tooth-wound (just over an inch long) together while it healed. Giving the tablets to Pseudo was difficult, his jaws are extremely strong and the serrations on the beak very sharp. Both geese had started to moult heavily, so Pseudo definitely didn't want to be held. The moult may have been triggered by the shock of the attack.

From then on, I made sure to shut the geese in their house at night. I found a large heavy block of four house bricks cemented together, and placed it in front of the hole in the fence in the hope that the invading predator would not be able to move it. I searched around the area for more evidence of the predator attack, and found a large strange claw mark in the hard earth around the fowl houses. I guessed that the claw mark would have been made during the struggle with Pseudo-Swan.

Left: The claw mark in the ground, 28th June 2000.

Left: The claw mark with a goose wing feather for scale.

The four large, long, strong claw marks with no sign of a pad mark at all indicate that the invading predator is a badger.

The other likely culprit, a fox or stray dog, would not have left such deep, strong claw marks.

There are no other large predators of fowl in England.

The main predators, aside from badgers and foxes (pictured below) and stray dogs, are stoats (pictured below), escaped mink and escaped ferrets.

Rats, cats, crows, magpies, ravens and hawks such as the sparrowhawk and kestrel, and the viper (the only poisonous snake in Britain) will take young chicks.


Above: Stoat. A stoat is a member of the weasel family, along with mink and ferrets. It is chestnut brown with a pale underside and black tip to its tail, and changes its coat colour to white in winter. It has very sharp needle-like teeth and is a voracious nocturnal predator.	Above: Badgers. Badgers are grey with striking black and white striped faces. They are immensely strong nocturnal creatures with very good digging ability. They are distantly related to bears .	Above: Fox. A fox is a member of the dog family. It has a chestnut or reddish-sandy coat, dark legs and ears and a white tip to its tail. They are extremely adaptable and many live in towns, scavenging from dustbins at night.

On Thursday 29th June I began to make preparations for Stroud Show. I had entered some egg classes as well as some chicken classes, and there was a lot to do. I had been saving eggs from the pure-bred hens for about 3 weeks, and now the time had come to examine them and choose the best three of each egg type for the Show. I also had to give five hens a bath, so that they would have time to preen their wet feathers before the Show on Saturday 1st July. Here are my entries for this years' Show:-

Rare Breed Female class - Ernie the Cream Legbar and Little Wing the Jersey Giant

Heavy Breed Female class - Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma the Partridge Brahma

Light Breed Female class - Flathead the Ancona and Attilla the Hen the Welsummer

The hens behaved themselves well while being washed, and I put them in the warm shed to dry. They stayed there for the rest of the day and night, and on Friday and night, just so that they couldn't dustbathe and spoil their lovely clean and sparkling feathers. Alkacell stayed in the shed with them too. The pure bred Show hens are not as aggressive as the rescued battery birds, and they just ignored Alkacell most of the time - and besides, they had to concentrate on preening their feathers dry and getting them back in place. This suited Alkacell fine, and she seemed delighted to be among hens who were not interested in attacking her. The Brahma was allowed to stay on the floor of the shed with her friends, as she was showing no signs of broodiness at all.