Discoveries

What a day...  It's so dreary out, it's dark and grey, raining and windy.  Classic weather for this area.  I was so pleased that it was decently warm out and that my hens were happily scratching around in the yard.  I went outside and checked for eggs and was so happy when I had two this morning.  I went back out in the afternoon to check for more and I almost died.  There in the nest sat Zoe... she was drenched from the rain and because of that I could see she had been injured several times by my rooster.  Her back is bare now, she has gouges and scabs in several places, some that look extremely deep.  I ran back inside to get Matthew.  When I came back out she was gone.  I watched her for a bit then coaxed the whole flock to come over to my woodhouse for a treat (bananas and of course... Cheerios).  I coaxed them right over to me and snatched up Zoe before Bill could even react.  She is now in Belle's old dog kennel (so glad I didn't sell it or chuck it), it's filled with clean straw and she has food and milk.  When I picked her up and saw the damage I started bawling.  I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed this.  It hadn't rained in so long I never saw any of these wounds.  My poor girls have been so severely overmated that almost all of them are missing feathers in spots.

I'm getting rid of Bill.  He's going to be given away as soon as possible.  I can't have him doing this to my girls.  There are too few of them clearly because they are waaaaay overmated.  I like watching Bill in the yard, he's interesting, he keeps the girls away from hawks, he hides them from danger, I like that.  But I can't have him around if this is what is going to happen.

To top all of this off I think my kitten is sick, he pooped on the floor twice last night while I was sleeping.  He stinks and so does my kitchen even after cleaning it all up.  My parents dog, my childhood dog is probably going to be put down on Monday.  What a frigging day...  at least my chicks are okay.  I've been reading about some horror stories that went on with people on the backyardchickens forum and I'm glad to say that mine are thriving.  They just had a treat today, bananas for the first time and boy did they LOVE them.  I tried grapes last and they really didn't like those much.  But the bananas, it was like a party in there.

Giacomo is crying his head off.  I feel like it's a bloody zoo in here.  My friend is coming over for wine later thankfully.  First though I will have to clean up Zoe even if she is here...

PS:  BB is doing excellent.  Her eggs still look flat and ridiculous but my lovely lady left the egg be!  She didn't eat it or peck it!  Way to go BB!