Miss Oddball

I put my chickens out into their yard/coop arrangement on Monday, although it was cloudy and cool, and I had my doubts. I was prompted to move them because they were beginning to fly up and perch on the wire of their enclosure in the barn. I didn't want them getting lost in our piles of junk where I couldn't reach them, but a snake most certainly could.

The very day I moved them, one, the oddball, bonus chick Murray McMurray Hatchery sends with an order, came up with a bad leg. The limb was splayed out horizontally from the hip in the wrong direction while she sat, and she couldn't stand on it. We inspected it for a break, but could find nothing wrong. She was also eating and keeping up with the baby flock, though it was a pathetic sight to watch her flapping and hobbling after them. Al thought we should kill her, and I would have if she was sick or suffering. She was neither--just had a bad leg. I've seen animals get along with a missing limb before and do alright, so I gave her a chance.

You can probably guess where this is going. This morning, Thursday, Miss Oddball is standing on her good leg and holding her injured leg in the correct position, even if tentatively. She is placing some weight, tentatively again, on the bad leg when she walks. The great thing is that she is upright, not sprawled on her belly. Where it will go from here, I can't say, but for the moment, it looks good.