The great chicken nemesis, the opossum, found a way into the coop this evening. Fortunately for my ladies, she was a very young predator. She did manage to frighten my birds into a cackling frenzy, chasing them off their perch and into the run. Scott found her, desperately clutching the wire at the top of the run, trying to find a way out. My years volunteering for a wildlife rehab prepped me for opossum removal (although she was fast and wiggly and I lost her on the first grab). I finally got her, and set her free.

Opossums eat chickens. We’ll have to review the coop in the daylight tomorrow to find the breach. In the meantime, I locked the door to the roosting area. Unfortunately, the opossum will return, and she’ll quadruple in size.

I can hear my hens squawking from their coop. Josie had a very close call with a sharp-shinned hawk this morning. I was standing about five feet away when it landed on her back! It bailed on the chicken-breakfast-project quickly, probably because I was there. SSH’s are quite small, so I am not sure it could have carried her off. Josie didn’t seem to know what was happening, just let out a “WTF?” squawk and made her way back into the coop. I need to check her back for injuries today, just as soon as I finish hosting my next webinar. Ah, life in the burbs.

Poor Josie. She really, really wants to be a mother. This is what we call a “broody chicken.” Some biological trigger was sprung, and she desperately wants chicks. It’s been about two months since she decided to hatch eggs, no matter how long it takes. She sits in her nest box all day long, hopping out once for a sip of water or a nibble of layer ration. Unfortunately, the lack of rooster in our coop means her extraordinary efforts are all for naught.

Every day I take her out and toss her into the yard. At the very least she gets a bit of exercise, a chance to eat some grass. She is noticeably frail, wobbly and extremely vocal, making a constant pipping cluck noise as she totters around. Inevitably, she loses interest in fresh air and scurries back to her box. Some chickens will never recover from this, literally starving themselves to death. Josie has dropped at least a pound, significant for a 5 pound bird. Keep your fingers crossed that her desire to be a mother passes soon!

These days I am especially happy to have my own group of healthy hens. Their lives are much different, much healthier and happier, than their sisters in factory farms. Still, it’s not a bad idea to be on alert to avoid a bout of Salmonella and it’s suite of symptoms: fever, bloody diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain.

First step. Check your eggs to make sure you don’t have a bad batch. Read this page on the FDA site to learn how to identify the source of your eggs! If you’re not sure, toss them. Visit your local farmers market and buy happy eggs instead.

Ongoing Salmonella avoidance is not rocket science. Keep your eggs refrigerated. Don’t eat broken eggs, especially if they are covered in chicken poop. And cook them well – no raw egg a-la-Rocky. Here are some good resources for additional reading.

• CDC.gov
• WebMD
• IncredibleEgg.org