Stepping Up to the Challenge
A co-worker of my husband's had a dilemma: He had some timid chickens that needed to be re-homed ASAP. Since we had lost a few chickens over winter to hungry animals, we said, "Yes!" Unfortunately, one of these inherited chickens ended up being harassed and pecked a incessantly by all the other chickens. She was incredibly sweet (you could easily pet her) and that was her initial downfall.
The chickens would peck at her feathers (birds are very mean) until she didn't have any and then the little blood droplets on her back would look like bugs so they would peck at those. To say the least, I was disgusted by this behavior. This chicken was isolated for a time and then I would watch her when she was around the other chickens.
What I decided to do was make her a protective coat to cover the bald spot and keep her as warm as I could. It was the end of winter, so she needed all the help she could get.
What I did was crochet a rectangular piece with some yarn and then crocheted two straps to keep it on. It did it's job fairly well. She was no longer harassed by the other chickens.
As you can see below, once the chicken was no longer being pecked at her feathers started to fill in nicely.
In the end all the feathers filled in and she was not only a sweet bird but a beautiful one as well.
Take care and be well, my friends!! I am working on a spinning tutorial with videos!! Hopefully I will have everything ready in a week.
~All photos are taken by me!
