Many folks seem to think that chickens are an easy-peasy pet, but those of us who have kept birds for any length of time can challenge that myth. Yes, they can be straightforward, but can also throw us for a loop causing our blood pressure to rise. Chickens are paradoxical; on the one hand, they are incredibly resilient while on the other, seem to drop dead without warning.
The following are stories of owners who have been able to bring doomed birds back from the brink, a tale of a disappeared rooster and another of a hen who succumbed after a seemingly benign encounter with a squirrel.
So, being the klutz that I am, I accidentally dropped an egg on the table when I was candling and the egg got a good size crack in it. I almost threw it out because I know that once bacteria gets inside, the chick will die anyway. I was bummed because I just watched it moving around inside the egg. I decided it was worth a shot to try the candle wax thing that I had heard about so I grabbed a tea light candle and a lighter and drizzled wax all over the crack and then crossed my fingers and put it back in the incubator. Well, it worked because ten days later this little nugget hatched. – Home Garden
My husband woke me up from a nap to tell me the chicken was dying on the back porch. I picked her up and her eyes were turning white and she wasn’t moving. I got her out of the heat, put her in the bathroom and syringe fed her some BodyArmor. She wasn’t actually drinking but I dripped it on her beak and squirted some in her mouth. She got still, closed her eyes, wouldn’t respond to any touch and flopped over so I left her till my husband could bury her. I came back and she was moving, perked up! I gave her a bath and now she’s walking around outside like she wasn’t just resurrected from the dead. – Unknown
“Your hen was in the stock tank! I don’t think she can be saved.”
With that, my evening changed entirely, as I took a cold, soaked Icelandic hen that looked like she was already gone to the heavenly henhouse. The air out there was in the 40’s at best. No time is ever a good time to find a hen in water, but especially not now.
I talked to her lifeless form as I stripped my lower extremities to get in the tub with her. “Well, you can only get so wet. And you’re there! But you, little bird, are way cold. I mean refrigerator cold so I’m gonna put you under the tap.”
How hot is too hot? I don’t know. I figured if my hands were comfortable, it might be okay for her. I know to warm gradually. I could hear my dad in my head, “Warm, not hot” Wait till he hears I used that life skill on a chicken!
Photo credit: Shelley Taylor Bond
Hubz brought me a tote, so I could warm her bottom half while keeping her upright.
I found myself saying, “I’m sorry for the extra water with what you just went through, lil bird!” Oop …she gasped for air! The first sign of life since she was handed to me. It was almost as if she accepted my apology. I was chuffed. She was surely mostly dead but not all dead. Where’s Miracle Max when I need him?
Not wanting to continue to traumatize her, I switched to a towel and a heating pad. When she was partially dry I started blowing her dry. She opened her eyes and shut them again. Clearly and understandably exhausted. But she was now breathing without opening her beak.
Blow drying chickens is a terribly stinky affair. And my experience was enhanced by a special present, right in the palm of my hand! Ewwww! That’s the grossest thing this month for sure! But dead birds don’t poop, so I suppose … but I don’t recommend it for hand lotion. I nearly gagged!
I got her situated in a tote with a heat lamp and a towel. She proceeded to sit very strangely. Almost upright. Then gave a half-hearted cluck. When I adjusted the towel she laid a soft shelled egg!
The next morning she hopped out of the tote and took off as soon as I removed the lid. Please, no more chickens playing duck. – Lisa Seiler
I am sad to report that Sir Reginald, Esquire has left our lives as suddenly as he entered it. He has not been home for two days now. He only had one night in the coop we had bought to give him somewhere safer than our porch railing to sleep. I have not seen him since the morning I let him out of his new coop. We did not have the infrastructure to keep him fenced in, so he still free ranged during the day on my and my neighbour property. Maybe he did not appreciate being shut into a penned coop that night and wandered off. I do not see any feathers or signs of an attack, maybe the neighbours finally decided to eat him, or he got lost and couldn’t find his way back, or maybe something big carried him off.
He was only here for a couple weeks, and I still listen in vain for his cheery bock bocks coming from my front porch. I really miss handing him blueberries.
My brief introduction to chicken husbandry was truly enjoyable, and I can’t wait to go get some of my own. We will definitely put the time and money to getting set up with a nice secure area before we go out and get some hens. I wish we had been better prepared for our unexpected guest, we just did not have a way to keep him comfortably penned in.
He was a really sweet fellow, and I still have a pile of blueberries on my railing if he does turn up. – Lauren Bathory
Has anyone ever had a chicken get scared and just keel over?! My flock doesn’t free range often and are a little flighty because of it. They heard a noise and a couple flew up squawking and running towards the coop, (it was literally just a squirrel) and this one dropped dead! I gave her until 6pm to come back to life. I regret to tell everyone that dear Cheesy was in fact deader than a doornail. She now rests in the cow manure compost pile. – Anonymous
Thanks to everyone who shared their stories and photos.
Bitchin' Chickens 
Yes. All kinds of things (including humans) just drop dead. I had 2 beautiful blue discus fish happily living in a tank in my apartment until there was a deafening crash from the neighbors next door. I jumped, the fish jumped and one of them turned over on it side and floated to the top. Amen. It was so suddenly awful that it took a while to really appreciate the loss. It seems saving things, even fish, somehow incorporates using water creatively.
Why don’t you wonderful, creative geniuses come up with a Chicken Rescue show? They do it for dogs, cats, bears, birds, wild animals, even people. You have more than enough knowledge and a whole culture behind you. And with this economy, like it or not, more people will be trying to do it.
Thank you for another interesting newsletter. m
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