My two warring chickens have come to a truce. It may be temporary but a truce it is nonetheless.
When they first began to fight I had absolutely no idea what to do about it. I was frantic like a mother hen worrying that they were going to cause permanent damage to one another and I especially feared for the oldest chicken because, well because she is old. I sought advice and I was told by several chicken owners that there would be nothing I could do except to eliminate one of the hens. A man I trust from my book group commiserated with me as he told me sadly that he had had to chop the head off of one of his hens because she had been caught eating eggs and egg eating is an egregious act for which the only possible remedy is death. Another friend who lives on a farm where chickens are raised said oh that is too bad when I asked what to do with my fighting hens because the only thing to do was to get rid of the aggressive hen preferably to give her away to someone who had no other chickens she could attack. Apparently life in prison was the best that our Rosie could hope for.
I was unconvinced or perhaps I was just chicken but I could never chop the head off of a living creature and isolation was just so complicated. How could I give her away when she was the chicken that my granddaughter picked out and named at the farm store where we went to get some new pullets after another hen died and we thought that others were soon to go as well? I didn't want to disappoint anyone and so I intervened in a rather benign way stepping in between the fighting chickens like they were children and separating them from each other whenever I saw them begin to fight.
I remembered that there was an incident of egg eating that I had stumbled upon a few years ago. The egg was broken and a couple of hens were starting to peck at it when I arrived on the scene. I had not a clue about what to do but the hose was near by so I turned it on the egg to wash it away into a fenced area where the chickens could not get at it. The hens ran away of course since they didn't like the stream of water. I picked up the egg shells and as far as I know there has not been any more egg eating. We keep track, I should say my husband keeps track, of all the eggs that are gathered and so we know when egg numbers are down. This usually means a hen is hiding eggs which we eventually find. We would notice if egg eating was going on.
But, back to the chicken war. When Princess went to brood over her bleeding comb and head, and apparently plan her next move, I stopped to pet her just to give her encouragement. Several times I would pick Rosie up gently since she was easier to catch and take her out of the fray asking do you girls have to fight and is hen pecking the only way to solve your problems? I also noticed that Rosie's comb was showing signs of wear and tear which means that Princess was not as old and frail as I might have imagined.
In the real world violence continues to be the quickest and easiest way to manage problems, especially problems that include violence of one sort or another. I wonder if other people get advice like I did and assume that the best thing to do is to get the problem taken care of right away and since no one wants to be called chicken or passive or unpatriotic they imprison or isolate or execute when really there might be other solutions if only one could be chicken enough to brood about what to do, which of course takes time.
Rosie and Princess have been seen hanging out together. Their verbal cluck cluck clucking that sounds like a fowl warning of impending chaos has come to an end and they are sharing from the same feeder once again.
I don't know. Maybe they are just waiting for the right moment to launch another assault.
But maybe, just maybe, they have resolved their issues without violent intervention from outsiders.
(By the way, the picture was taken hours after this post was first written. I couldn't resist adding it. Rosie on the left, Princess to the right. The sign has been in the yard a long time.)
No comments:
Post a Comment