Every story needs a personality. The Chicken Lady's "pets" are no different. Like people, our furry or feathery friends have their own stories.
To show you that the Chicken Lady actually exists we capture the story of Courage.
Courage's mother was a small brown Bantam chicken that roosted in the apple tree at night. Because it's what chickens do. In late fall of 2014, she hatched out a nest of baby chicks under my porch. There were 7 of them and they were tiny. Then it snowed and she decided that they should all go up into the apple tree to sleep. But the babies were only a few days old. When it got dark she took them all through the snow to the apple tree. She flew up into the tree, but the babies could not fly. they were not even the size of a golf ball.
I was in bed and heard the babies peeping loudly, so I went out in my nightgown to see what was going on. There they were standing in snow that was deeper then they were tall. Mama was up in the tree calling them to come up with no success.
I put on my boots and started running around to catch them. Mind you, it's snowing and I'm in my nightgown. Unfortunately, 2 had already died from being cold and wet. I caught the remaining 5 and took them into the pole barn and put them in a cat carrier. Mama flew down, went into the barn and got in the carrier with her young and that started it all..
Mama and babies stayed in the barn all winter. The babies grew but never got very big. I think they lacked the sunshine to help them grow. They were about the size of a pigeon. They had never been out of the barn for the first 7 months of their life and have never seen the sun. When it warmed up, Mama started going back up in the tree. The babies still could not fly that high. They would stay under the tree until dark then all 5 went back into the barn to their bed in the cat carrier.
When summer finally arrived they would come out of the barn and walk around the yard with the other chickens, but at night they went back in. Courage never would go very far from the barn, she stayed by herself most of the time.
It turned out there were 3 boys & 2 girls. The boys remained very tiny and were only about 1/2 the size of a regular Bantam rooster, but they learned how to fly. By the fall of 2015 they could fly up to the rafters in the barn. All but Courage. She still slept in the cat carrier. She was the only one that grew to be white with speckles, all the others were dark.
One by one they started to fly up into the apple tree with Mama. Then Mama was gone. I think an owl got her. The young ones went back to the safety of the barn rafters. But in the spring when they came out again they started to sleep back in the apple tree with other chickens. One by one they disappeared. Hawks, Owls or whatever.
Courage had never gone to sleep in the tree and always stayed in the barn by herself. There is a foot problem with the breed of Bantam that she is. She has feathers on her ankles and grows calluses on her feet that cause her toes to get hard and sort of grow together with parts of them breaking off, making it hard to walk. Her nails get very long and I have to keep them trimmed and peel off the callus often. She has already lost part of one toe.
Josh my grandson named her Courage because she had the courage to survive alone after all her hardships.
Because I left the pole barn garage door open a little at the bottom for Courage, other chickens decided that was a good place to sleep too. The barn got the look like a chicken coop inside so, this spring all of the chickens that had taken up residence in the barn except for Courage were removed to chickens coops. But the first night after eviction from the barn they left the coops and all are now in the apple tree at night including Courage who has learned to fly up just like all the other chickens. I opened the barn door for her in the morning and she left it. She is now the first one to fly up into the tree every night.
More to come on the eviction story, stay tuned.
More to come on the eviction story, stay tuned.
