So lately i have had some issues with Jennie. She wants me to know that she is in charge and will be in control of the coop and apparently me. She comes up to me and stomps her feet like you do at a football game and crouches down and then puffs up about 3 times bigger then life and charges my knees making hen noises.
Of course i cant have this and was told under no circumstance could i allow my hens to place me in the pecking order beneath them. So each time she does this i place my hand on her back and she lays down and makes noises and i pet her and then i pick her up and hold her close and then put her down with a pat on the bum and a blueberry treat. I do this until she stops threatening me…sometimes it is scary!
So last night, after watching the girls brave fences and trees, i decided it was time to clip their wings. Of course Gladys came right up to me, “HI! can i have blueberries? ” so i couldnt start with her and i knew catching Pen would be a royal pain. The perfect candidate was my Jennie who was having domination issues of her own. I scooped her up and the battle began. She puffed up and struggled and made danger noises but i got the job down. I found this great website with the how-tos of feather clipping. they included this handy little diagram. looks simple enough dont you think?
Here is the process as i see it now
this was my moment of false security…you can tell Jennie is plotting
this was me turning her around for the clipping of the feathers. Note the size of her eyeball. This is seconds before,
panic and mayhem ensued. Somehow i didnt let her go but she sure is feisty!
so here is the result. It was a little sad clipping those gorgeous feathers off and it looks a bit ravaged now but it had to be done. Jennie’s neck feathers ( i am sure there is an official name for this) eventually went back down.
Gladys just sat there looking at me and you would have thought Penelope was being slaughtered one pink toe at a time. I kept one of each feather for prosperity.
What i wasnt expecting was the uproar they created after i put them down. I thought they had all decided to lay a united egg with the squawking. They were not longer making pullet noises, these were full grown chicken noises. I LOVED IT! It didnt take long for them to settle back down but what trauma! THANK GOD i dont have to castrate bulls or something, i would never make it.
