Retirement home for Nadia and Gracie

As I mentioned, Bella was completely cured of stargazing quite suddenly last Sunday. We kept her in the cage until Monday, just to be sure, and then put her back with the rest of the flock. Unlike the chickens described in the backyardchickens.com discussion board, Bella’s recovery took only a week of vitamin therapy. We feared it would go on for a month or more. We will continue weekly vitamin supplements as recommended by the discussion posts.

When I went out this cold and windy morning, Bella was in the kennel standing on one leg to keep her other foot warm next to her body. Two weeks ago, she couldn’t stand at all. It has been an amazing recovery.

Bella standing on one foot and keeping the other tucked up under her feathers

Here she is hanging out with the rest of the girls in the coop.

Hanging with the girls

What to do about the Silver Crested chickens? I asked Kate to ask her sister (Kim) to ask the student (Hallie) who took Jackie if she wanted two hens who didn’t lay anymore. The answer came back Monday—Hallie’s mom said no more chickens.

We considered our options. Terry was all for clipping beaks. This seemed hard to me. I didn’t know what kind of a tool we would use or how to clip the tip of the beak without cracks developing in the part that remained. I looked up pinless peepers on Murray McMurray. These are like blinders for chickens that are supposed to keep them from pecking each other because they can’t see in front of them. How long would it be before they figured out how to get them off? Furthermore, installing them required a special tool and, like the clipping, seemed hard when I imagined trying to keep the bird’s head still.

What about a small coop with its own run to keep Nadia and Gracie safe from being pecked for the remainder of their days? Maybe in the absence of bullying, they would start laying again. I also envisioned using the coop as the chicken tractor I’d always wanted. Come spring, we could take the coop down to the garden and have the chickens pull weeds and fertilize before it was time to plant. Farm and Fleet had three models, all in stock. Two of the three got terrible reviews. No kidding. The subject heading of one was “Junk do NOT waste your money.” Well.  Only the most expensive model had good reviews. Plus it was very cute. It was called the “Little Red Hen Barn.”

Hilda was enthusiastic. She ran right out to Farm and Fleet that very day and bought one. Terry got started putting it together the next day. The Little Red Hen Barn was made by the same company as the Junk-do-NOT-waste-your-money coops, and Terry gave me an earful when I got home. The roof, which was designed to open, was not constructed to take the force of opening. The only thing holding the two halves together was a ridgepole made of inferior weak wood. Also, it came with an insufficient number of hinges. A piano hinge would have been best, but it came with 2 two-inch hinges. I gave approval for Terry to add braces to each side to hold the roof together. He would pick up more hinges next time he was at Menards. Meanwhile, we had to be very careful to open it in the middle NOT at the edges, or we would pop the hinges. Yes, sir! By Thursday, it was done. He even made a nice brace to prop the roof up while we did the daily coop maintenance.

How to keep the water from freezing? I stopped at Farm and Fleet between meetings on Thursday afternoon to get a heated waterer, but came out with a heated pad. I hoped it would keep the water thawed as well as keep the girls warm.

We put the new coop and pen inside the regular run so the girls would still be protected by the electric netting.

The new coop inside the chicken run

Friday morning, we got everything set up and put the girls in the pen. The morning was bitterly cold with a ripping west wind. The girls wouldn’t go inside, preferring to hunker down in the corner. Hilda remember that we generally start chicks inside their new coop. I put scratch grains on the ramp and inside the door. They ate the scratch grains without entering the coop. After an hour with no sign of interest in the shelter of the Little Red Hen Barn, we shut the door and put them inside. After a couple of hours, I dropped the door again, and they went in and out normally.

Close up of the Little Red Hen Barn showing added braces on the roof and the board to prop the roof open

Inside the new coop--the black is the heated pad under the water. The feeder is the square jar on the lower left

Gracie’s head looks like a porcupine with the new quills sprouting. I’m looking forward to seeing both girls with heads restored to their previous glory.

The quills on the back of Gracie's head

Side view of Gracie's head

We hope they will be happy in their retirement home.