The dark days of winter. This time of year is hard, especially with all the Christmas lights down. I know we are gaining on the sunlight, but we still have more than five months until the summer solstice. This season also means my hens aren’t laying many eggs. It has been two weeks since my last egg. As frequent readers know, it takes a lot of work to clean the coop, feed the hens, refill their water container, give them treats, put hats on them, and not get any eggs. The lack of egg production has forced me to buy eggs at the grocery store. I paid $10.49 for a dozen free-range eggs. When did the price of eggs get so high?

Our “Little Gray” hen hatched out five peeps in late June. Unfortunately, one of them had a bad leg, and while she could hop around, she couldn’t roost. After about eight weeks, we had to move her on to greener pastures. Of the remaining youngsters, it appears we have at least three roosters. About four weeks ago, I headed up to the coop for the weekly cleaning, and I found one of those cockerels (young roosters) hanging out in the coop. I kicked him out so I could clean, and as he ran down the ramp, all the other chickens started chasing him and pecking at him. When I intervened, he was crammed up in the corner of the run. I picked him up and found that he was pecked raw and nearly lifeless.

At this point, I decided he needed to be moved to the smaller coop just 20 feet from where I stood. All I needed to do was open the coop gate, walk the 20 feet to the other coop, open that gate, and put him inside. But this simple journey became a bit of an obstacle course, because I had two very interested retrievers who wanted to help. Now, if I had expected to be handling chickens and moving them from one coop to another, I wouldn’t have brought the dogs, but this was the situation I found myself in.

So, I stood there, contemplated the situation, and did what anyone would: I took a selfie. No, I did. But then I realized I was stuck. There was no way I would be able to handle this situation alone. I could either set the cockerel down and take the dogs up to the house, risking further attacks on the cockerel, or I could phone a friend. So I called Mike and asked for his help. He came up and was able to pull the dogs away so I could move the injured cockerel to the other coop.

A few days ago I made my morning walk up to the chickens with the dogs. As I approached the gate, I saw Sven, our rooster, standing with his back to the gate in what appeared to be a protective stance. Sven is 2 years old and to date hasn’t been aggressive with me or the other hens. My first thought was that perhaps that “switch” had flipped in his head and he was ready to fight. I opened the gate and asked him if he was planning on moving. As I did, I realized his spur was caught in the chicken netting and he was stuck. He tried to free himself, but he couldn’t. He was so nervous with me so close that he kept trying to get away, making the situation worse.

I walked back to the house to get some snips and returned to the gate. I was hoping I could cut the netting from under the gate, but that didn’t work. So, I slowly eased myself into the coop and crouched down next to him, within about 12 inches. He stood completely still.

Slowly, I started to cut away the netting around his spur. After four cuts, he was able to free himself and run away. I watched him for a bit to make sure he wasn’t injured. He looked OK, but he wasn’t quite as “cocky” as he normally is.

I walked back to the house feeling pretty good about myself and saving my rooster. But then I started to think about him. He’d been stuck and had to succumb to my help in order to get free. I’m sure that was hard for him at some deep chicken level.