Olivia was one of our original 8 chickens in 2016. She was a gentle Plymouth Barred Rock in a coop and large run with 4 other Plymouth Barred Rocks, 3 Buff Orpingtons and two “Easter Eggers.” She lived peacefully among the other chickens. However, at about 6 months it became clear that Olivia had a problem. She was flying into the chicken wire on the run and was being relentlessly bullied by the other hens. They wouldn’t even let her into the coop and she flew up and slept on top of the coop every night! (She was protected from predators as it was in a very predator-proof run) It didn’t take us too long to realize that she was blind. Suspecting a blind chicken did not have much of a chance for survival, I put her into a large toaster oven box (Don’t judge me! The size was right) to drive her to the vet. I told my wife I thought she needed to be prepared that the chicken may not be coming back 
She told me in no uncertain terms that Olivia was to come back alive.
Olivia in Toaster Oven Box held by vet tech
The kind vet listening to Olivia’s heart
Olivia, making it clear what she thought of being at the vet
So, I took Olivia to the vet, which I found to be very strange in the first place. The vet told me that there were many possibilities for blindness in a chicken, and she recommended an x-ray as part of the work-up “Surely she is not seriously suggesting an x-ray of a chicken,” I was thinking. This was a dilemma. I love our hens, but at some point I had to decide how much I was willing to spend on this poor bird. My number was significantly lower than the cost of the x-ray alone. My wife’s voice in my head, I told the vet to proceed.
After doing the x-ray, the vet told me that she did not see anything unusual and she was not sure why Olivia was blind. It was possible she had an infection in her eyes. She prescribed eyedrops that we were to use twice daily. I agreed to this plan. So, much poorer than in the morning, I returned home with Olivia. My wife, daughters, and I started holding Olivia down twice daily and applying the drops. She did not like it very much, but we did manage to get the drops in her eyes.
Meanwhile, Olivia was still being tormented by the other hens. They pecked at her constantly. Fortunately, we have a second completely protected area adjacent to the chicken run that was being used to house a failing vegetable garden. We purchased a smaller chicken coop ($) and put Olivia in there to live more peacefully. She learned to make her way around in her little coop and run and was free from bullying. We continued applying her eyedrops for about 3 weeks.
Olivia’s little coop
We thought there was no possible way that putting eyedrops in a poor chicken’s eyes was actually going to help. Incredibly, it did! She would flinch when we moved our hand near her face. She clearly still had difficulty seeing, but this was a positive sign.
Olivia was getting on fine in her little coop, but we thought it would be nicer for her to be with the other chickens if they were not pecking her. We slowly reintroduced her to the flock. The other chickens were definitely not inviting her to be social chair of their sorority, but they left her alone for the most part. She was eating, drinking, and scratching for grain with them without being pecked for the most part. Apparently, she still didn’t feel comfortable or welcomed by them, because she still slept on top of the coop. If it got very cold in the winter we would bring her into our basement to wait it out.
Over the next six years, we lost all of our original chickens to illness or old age. That is, all except for Olivia! She outlived all of them.
Over those years we got six more chicks who grew into gentle hens. Olivia lives with them peacefully. A couple of weeks after the last of the original group of hens died we realized something that surprised us - Olivia had actually moved back into the coop. After a life as an outsider, she still does not sit on the roost in the coop with the other birds, but she’s not on the roof. She sleeps on the edge of one of the nesting boxes at the bottom of the coop.
Olivia in her “bed”
Three of the other birds on their roost
Olivia continues to surprise us. Sometimes I go out to feed the birds and don’t see her right away. “Uh-oh,” I frequently think, “This is the day we lost our little bird.” But she always appears. Usually, she is pecking at something non-existent, but there she is.
Olivia is amazing.
She told me in no uncertain terms that Olivia was to come back alive.
Olivia in Toaster Oven Box held by vet tech
The kind vet listening to Olivia’s heart
Olivia, making it clear what she thought of being at the vet
After doing the x-ray, the vet told me that she did not see anything unusual and she was not sure why Olivia was blind. It was possible she had an infection in her eyes. She prescribed eyedrops that we were to use twice daily. I agreed to this plan. So, much poorer than in the morning, I returned home with Olivia. My wife, daughters, and I started holding Olivia down twice daily and applying the drops. She did not like it very much, but we did manage to get the drops in her eyes.
Meanwhile, Olivia was still being tormented by the other hens. They pecked at her constantly. Fortunately, we have a second completely protected area adjacent to the chicken run that was being used to house a failing vegetable garden. We purchased a smaller chicken coop ($) and put Olivia in there to live more peacefully. She learned to make her way around in her little coop and run and was free from bullying. We continued applying her eyedrops for about 3 weeks.
Olivia’s little coop
We thought there was no possible way that putting eyedrops in a poor chicken’s eyes was actually going to help. Incredibly, it did! She would flinch when we moved our hand near her face. She clearly still had difficulty seeing, but this was a positive sign.
Olivia was getting on fine in her little coop, but we thought it would be nicer for her to be with the other chickens if they were not pecking her. We slowly reintroduced her to the flock. The other chickens were definitely not inviting her to be social chair of their sorority, but they left her alone for the most part. She was eating, drinking, and scratching for grain with them without being pecked for the most part. Apparently, she still didn’t feel comfortable or welcomed by them, because she still slept on top of the coop. If it got very cold in the winter we would bring her into our basement to wait it out.
Over the next six years, we lost all of our original chickens to illness or old age. That is, all except for Olivia! She outlived all of them.
Over those years we got six more chicks who grew into gentle hens. Olivia lives with them peacefully. A couple of weeks after the last of the original group of hens died we realized something that surprised us - Olivia had actually moved back into the coop. After a life as an outsider, she still does not sit on the roost in the coop with the other birds, but she’s not on the roof. She sleeps on the edge of one of the nesting boxes at the bottom of the coop.
Olivia in her “bed”
Three of the other birds on their roost
Olivia continues to surprise us. Sometimes I go out to feed the birds and don’t see her right away. “Uh-oh,” I frequently think, “This is the day we lost our little bird.” But she always appears. Usually, she is pecking at something non-existent, but there she is.
Olivia is amazing.
