Chicken (Feather) Tales?

[artemis]

Hey, just something I found out about earlier this week.... 


A chicken keeper in town had two elderly laying hens (who still laid an occasional egg, although they were over 5 or so years of age) offered me her hens when she learned I was going to start up doing chickens here.  I declined, because I wanted to start new, and get used to handling birds as they developed from chicks to pullets to adults.  I did buy some equipment from her.  (She has to move, as she has developed a serious illness, and can no longer live rural or maintain a hen house much longer.)  


Another person offered to take the two birds, but the one bird vanished from the hen house before the other person could obtain that bird... 


That bird was gone for over two weeks, and everyone assumed a fox, hawk, or owl got it.  Our main predators.  


Two or three days ago... that bird returned!  


Awesome, a hen that had over time developed/learned the traits she needed for survival out on her ownsome, in a high-predation neighborhood!


So... Anyone else got bird tails?  Er, tales???  
 

[seminolewind]

Lets see. Of course one night I didn't count heads and my poor JG rooster spent the night outside tangled in some netting. G_d I felt so bad!

[chickenqueen]

I found my red hen at a state park one night when we went fishing.She roosted in a tree and when I went to grab her,she got up higher where I couldn't reach her.So,I went back the next night and got her.That was 4 yrs ago.I named her Ruby(I know,real original) and she now insists on laying her eggs in my dirty laundry basket,just like Precious.Then there's Buffy.She got out of her pen next door(terrible conditions over there)2 yrs ago and wandered into my yard.That night,when I locked them up,she was in there,too,like she'd always been there.She had a red,inflamed,bald butt and we got that cleared up and the feathers grew back.Me and her always have conversations and now she even lets me pet her belly.Then there's Dirty Butt,she also defected from next door earlier this year.I think she's a leg horn and her butt is always poopy.it's so bad her tail and butt feathers are permanently stained brown.I've bathed her,trimmed her and applied oils all to no avail.She's just a dirty butt.