Chicken feed

Chickens are cannibalistic.

I know this isn't a great mind-picture, but it's very true.

The other day, Andy had gone outdoors to smoke a cig and he decided to check the chickens. He came flying in the house and was sort of mildly freaking out. He said that one of the chickens was bloody on it's back, at the base of it's tail about the size of a golfball around. She was apparently getting picked on by the others. I tried to decide what to do, then grabbed the talcum powder and went outdoors to see if I could fix the problem.

I went out and assessed the problem and powdered the victim's back with the powder and since then she's been fine.

You see, if chickens see blood and they sort of go crazy. They're like pigs that way. If a chicken gets pecked, it causes more and more pecking until the victim could be killed. Covering the bloody skin with white talcum powder stopped them from pecking because they could no longer see the red. Chickens aren't very bright and they'll eat ANYTHING....even their own. But they don't usually peck at each other unless there is blood from a little scratch or an accidental peck from one of their coop-sisters. Then it's every girl for herself!

Next time I'll use something like corn starch, flour or even the DE powder we use as a floor dryer and chicken de-wormer in their coops...that's good for them. I don't know if talc would hurt them or not if they kept pecking and ingested some of it. I didn't think that far ahead when the incident happened.

Since we're on the subject of cannibalism, one of the favorite treats we give our chickens is their own eggs and egg shells. I save the eggs we get that may have a blood spot on it, a fleck of tissue in the white, and the ones that get cracked somehow in the nest or on the way into the house from the coop and scramble them with the crushed egg shells. Sometimes I even throw in a few good ones just to make enough to feed all eleven chickens. I crush up the egg shells very well that we get from any eggs we use, because if they ever identify the shells as the same thing they have in their nests, they will become egg eaters. Not a good thing! If they acquire that badBadBAD chicken habit, OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!

Anyway, they love this warm treat on these cold winter days. After cooking them, I chop them up really well.