First Ladies, Hen Aprons, and Chicken Mental Health

I originally intended to name my hens after the first ladies of the United States. The only one of them that I managed to apply that to, however, is Mary Todd. Mary Todd is a Cinnamon Queen, and she is the roosters favorite. Which means she is really rough looking. Chicken love is cruel and as a result she had severe feather loss on her back, wings and head. So, I made her an apron.

Mary Todd, Lower Right, in her apron.
The Americauna in the middle has one, too. 

 A Hen Apron, or chicken saddle, is a little cover that fastens to the hen with elastic and covers her injuries so that she can heal. Another way to deal with that is to remove the hen from the flock, but chickens get really unhappy when you take them away from the flock, and unhappy chickens sicken and die.

So, the apron. It was too cute. Yellow with blue Dragonflies. I put it on her one morning at breakfast. She didn't like it, but I whispered to her that she was in an abusive relationship and it was for her own good. Then I let her go. She sat very still for a second, hunkered down and began to walk backwards.   It was hysterical.

I had read that a chicken may react to the apron this way- trying to get out from under it by backing up.  Mary Todds reaction was extreme, however.  She not only walked backward, but she staggered a bit, too.  She began foraging with the other girls after a day or so, and seems to be eating and drinking normally.  But she just hasn't been the same since she got her apron, and she has sort of a strange look in her eye that reminds me of Mrs. Lincoln.  The apron may enhance the resemblance.  And she is still, weeks later, walking backwards.