The other day, I mentioned in a post that I cried after I cut our hen's feathers. I did it so that she would stay out of our neighbor's yard. Until that time, I found myself obsessively checking on her to make sure she was where she was supposed to be. Which is in
our yard, which is
plenty big for her and her four babies. Apparently, she has already forgotten where she came from (a barn with many, many, many other chickens. In fact, when we got her, she was in a very small cage with her four babies).
I kept contemplating building her a chicken tractor (a movable coop), but I'm not that experienced at carpentry. I was also feeling overwhelmed with the idea of finding the materials (I wanted to try to do it with what we already have) and spending time building the pen in this stinkin' heat! So, I decided trimming her feathers was the answer. Even though I was overcome with emotion at the time, I'm fine now and so is she. And I no longer feel stressed out about her bothering the neighbors.
I scanned some of the feathers I took from Velma and they really do make a nice picture, so I wanted to share it with you:
Don't you think feathers are amazing? The way they look, the many colors they come in and the incredible things they can do. I mean, they help birds
fly - that is pretty awesome!
