Angry Birds

I started this week off with three chickens; but now I am down to two. Chicken #1, #2 and #3 were great layers in their day, but it has been months since they have earned their keep. I have been keeping them around any ways because killing chickens is serious business (mess-wise) and I just can’t bring myself to kill a perfectly healthy animal. Chickens #1 and #2 somehow escaped the coop while Bleeker and D.O.G. were outside.

At the time the terrified SQUAK from chicken #2 rang out, I was chatting with Travis. When I ran out to see what the matter was, she was huddled in a pile of her scattered feathers. Bleeker alert to my arrival ran up to me, excited to show me what he had discovered. He was quickly shuttled into his crate so I could evaluate the damage done. I couldn’t see much because it was dark so I ran back inside and shuffled through my rooms looking for my flashlight.

I couldn’t find my flashlight so Travis came over with his. #2 wasn’t doing good, there was a large chunk of feathers missing and she wasn’t going to heal so Travis and I were left with the responsibility to stop her pain. I felt so bad for her, and the last thing I wanted to do was botch her execution…so Travis and I threw some ideas around trying to determine which would be the best. I don’t have a hatchet, so we used a scraper I had.

The scraper was on the end of a 5ft pole; so I held the pole in place while Travis took a heavy swing with my rubber mallet…unfortunately, his first swing missed the pole entirely and instead fell on my hand. OUCH!

Travis was able to carry on without me and I am happy to say he did a clean job of it. I think this was Travis’ first ‘farm-life’ experience, but he was a natural :} Chicken #1 disappeared for a day but was roaming around two days later, so I’m just assuming she was in hiding.

I hope I don’t have to do any more executions for a long time! They are not fun! But I’m glad Travis was there to help me, he was fun to watch – since it definitely freaked him out a little, but I think he was trying to be brave for me :}

Sorry this was so long!

Kisses!