Henny Chesney is making strides.
Well, not actual strides since she still can’t walk, but she’s started standing on one leg more often. She puts the injured leg down towards the ground but doesn’t actually put any weight on it. She hops on the good leg a little. She is starting to use her broken leg to scratch her face.
She’s also starting to spend more time during the day standing up on the good leg. I’ve seen several stories about chickens living a good life on one leg, so if that’s what’s in her future, we’ll make it work.
The weather isn’t freezing anymore, so on decent days, I take the bottom out of her cage and put her in it outside. We have a door in our bathroom that leads to the back porch, and just off that porch is a very thick, very green patch of clover. Henny loves clover.
I bring her out for several hours each day, sometimes with a wind block, so she can get back outside like she’s used to. I’ve also gotten her a big bag of mealworms as occasional treats. My husband just loves this in the bathroom. I can tell by the way he rolls his eyes each day he comes home and Henny is still in there. It’s like a chicken hospital/daycare.
Only in this chicken hospital, I want to make sure she stays calm and stress-free. I don’t let my husband turn on the lights in the bathroom until after the sun comes up, and once the sun goes down, the lights must stay off. He loves this rule, especially since he gets up at 5:00 am to get ready for work every day.
I leave the blinds in the bathroom open 24/7 so she gets natural light. In the morning I can hear her start to peck at her food once it becomes light. In the evening, as the room darkens when the sun sets, she lays down to sleep for the night. The stress-free, natural light rule seems to be working great.
I’m lucky my husband hasn’t divorced me yet.
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