Chicken Bras and Coop Politics
In May of 2022, what we expected to be a straightforward house sitting assignment in Montenegro turned out to be instead an induction into coop politics and lessons in making chicken bras!
With just one outdoor cat to watch over, two house rabbits that pretty much took care of themselves, and six chickens to feed and water, what could be simpler
Well, the cat and rabbits were no problem at all, but it turns out chickens can be much more trouble than you would think.
Silky’s Rough Start
When we arrived, unfortunately, one of the chickens, a golden feathered girl named Silky, had found herself on the wrong side of a neighbor’s feisty dog.
One wing was pretty badly chewed and hanging very low, and she had a chest wound that we felt there was probably no coming back from.
However, despite all the odds, Silky seemed to be hanging in there. One of our tasks was to undertake twice daily dressing changes on her wounds and hand-syringed antibiotics administered directly into her beak.
Beak-fed Antibiotics
Chickens are pretty wriggly and flappy at the best of times, so our twice-daily ritual of catching, calming, and then providing medical care often took over an hour each time. Silky certainly didn’t enjoy those two medical appointments each day!
Getting a chicken to orally take antibiotics involves one person pulling on its quiff and gently prising open its beak, whilst another painstakingly slowly empties a syringe of medicine into its mouth.
This was obviously not a usual daily experience for Silky and her nervousness generally led to her emptying her bowels on one of her makeshift chicken doctors.
The ‘Pecking’ Order
Now, we’ve all heard the phrase ‘the pecking order’ but we (and Silky!) learned firsthand just where that phrase comes from.
Sensing a weakness amongst their group, 3 of the younger, stronger chickens saw an opportunity to remove the weakest link from the coop. On a nightly basis, they would orchestrate tactical maneuvers that involved cornering and pecking poor Silky.
Already once nearly fatally wounded, Silky was up against it again, this time from her own kind. So, much like you would do for a prison snitch, we fashioned an isolation booth and settled her in it, for her own protection.
Off to the Vet
As Silky’s health wasn’t really improving after a couple of weeks, and after a discussion with our hosts, they agreed we should finally take Silky to the vet to put her out of her misery.
We said our goodbyes, but the vet saw no reason why Silky could not live a long, happy life once her wounds had healed, so gave us another dose of antibiotics to administer and he sent us on our way.
The last time we checked in with our hosts and Silky, they reported she was out of isolation and once again laying eggs on a daily basis, something even the vet thought was impossible.
Google, How Do You Make a Bra For a Chicken?
That in itself is enough chicken drama for anyone, but Silky wasn’t the only girl in the coup in need of extra special care during our stay.
Enter Dusty, an old rescued bird who no longer laid eggs and had developed as we soon learned, a sour or blocked crop.
Never heard of that before? Why would you have? We certainly hadn’t but it turns out it’s an infection of the esophagus that causes a swelling in the chest area. It caused Dusty to appear as if she had enormous breasts. They were so large that they dragged along the floor which meant she couldn’t walk more than a few steps without resting.
So, as we became more concerned with her condition and following advice once again from our hosts, we found ourselves Googling ‘how to make a bra for a chicken’. Now sour crop is fairly common, so believe it or not, there are many bra-based how-to guides online from fellow chicken enthusiasts. So with needle and thread in hand and some scraps of material, we fashioned our first and hopefully last item of chicken lingerie.
The ‘Pecking’ Order: Round 2
We’ll remind you once again of the pecking order. Chickens can be vicious animals when they sense weakness. The same gang that attacked Silky set their sights on Dusty, whose newly acquired attire proved only to limit her self-defense capabilities.
We found Dusty early one morning pecked to oblivion and missing an eye – where it had gone was anyone’s guess. Off to the vets, we went again, this time with a different chicken.
After checking her over thoroughly, the same ever-optimistic vet saw no reason to be alarmed, exclaiming in broken English ‘one eye, no problem’. He seemed confident that Dusty would not be adversely affected with only 50% vision. He complimented the concept of the chicken bra, but we had already decided that one night out in the Wild West of the coup with the bra was enough. Dusty joined Silky in the safety of the makeshift isolation booth.
A couple of days later, whilst doing our morning rounds, we inspected Dusty, and low and behold the eye had returned! Do chicken eyes grow back overnight? Evidently, they do. Or more likely her eyelid swelling had gone down enough that her eyeball was once again visible to the world.
We finished our placement after two months, leaving some very happy hosts and two beaten but not broken chickens who lived to fight another day.
Up Next
Be sure to read episode 2 of Short Tails, this time it’s Rob’s article – Welcome to Texas.
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