McNugget vs. Watermelon

Warning:  Edge kids of Pullman-  Do not read!

I was told I should blog this story for posterity's sake.  So here goes.

We have 3 hens that we have had for several years.  One of which is McNugget.  McNugget comes from a friend who decided she probably shouldn't have chickens after two were eaten by their dogs.  Needless to say, McNugget has always been kind of a stinker.  She only lays eggs very rarely and she just likes to sit on the eggs the other hens lay.

Our dear sister-in-law gave us three of their hens that they raised this spring.  They are Watermelon, Marshmallow (aka golden) and Gurdie.  They are all just about to start laying eggs, and we have had a couple of eggs already.

McNugget is kind of a bully.  She picked out poor Watermelon (I don't know why her, maybe because they are similar color?  That's the only thing I can come up with) and would chase her and peck at her.  I thought this was normal, that the older hens would pick on the newer ones.  Well, McNugget took this to an extreme.  One afternoon while we were having a barbecue with several friends, a couple kids came in and Willie told me that Watermelon's head was bleeding all over.  I go out there, and it looks like McNugget has gotten hold of that thingy on top of their heads and torn it off, along with a big chunk of the poor hens scalp.  Watermelon is still walking around, pecking, and seems to be fine, despite missing half of her scalp.

I told Reed and he wanted to get rid of McNugget right then.  Even though we had 16 kiddos running around the yard and house.  Reed went out back with his gloves on and plastic sack in hand.  McNugget was sitting in the coop, so Reed reached in and snapped her neck.  He then put her in the plastic bag, and put the bag in the big garbage can.  This all worked out great.  No kids saw what happened, the bully chicken problem was no more...

About ten minutes later, our friend was in the kitchen and let us know that a chicken was loose in our front yard.  McNugget was out running in the front yard.  This means that she got out of the plastic sack and out of the garbage can.  Reed came back and got his glove and said he was going to name the hen "Resurrection."  He went out to get McNugget, but she bee-lined it into the neighbors yard.  We couldn't find her, and haven't seen her since.

Now, one thing about hens that I have noticed, is they like to play dead.  Like when McNugget would chase Watermelon, I thought Watermelon had died, but she just lays there and doesn't move.  I think that's what McNugget did and she played dead until she could get away.

So here we are three days later with a scalped chicken that doesn't know she is missing half her head, and a MIA hen that maybe a kind neighbor took in.  The best part is that every time I look outside I expect to see McNugget.