Rescued chicken learns to be a chicken!

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by Elaine Kuhl-Goldman
(Soddy Daisy (Bakewell) Tennessee)

Story:

Rescued chicken learns to be a chicken!
Awhile back a family pulled up in my driveway with a chicken they had rescued from an overturned chicken (Conagra) truck.

I guess I have gotten the reputation as being the "chicken lady" so they brought her to me...hoping I could save her! She was huge and could not walk very well, saddest thing I'd ever seen.

She was huge and her feet deformed...but she seemed to like the fresh corn,grapes, and bananas I gave her.

My research into the Conagra chickens left me horrified what a horrible life she must have had. I knew I had to keep and save her.

Since my chickens are free to roam our farm and go in each night into a coop...I was concerned about introducing an unknown into my healthy flock, but chose to put her in a cage in the coop to get her and them used to each other!

As the days went by...they didn't like her much but began to be curious about her and she of them...she didn't know how to scratch the ground for a week she watched them and then one day she started imitating them!

Then she tried so hard to follow them as they made their rounds and I followed her...so the hens and especially the roosters could not beat her up but being so large she could not use her legs well.

She stuck right near me a lot and I took to sitting in a chair nearby to watch her ...(so no other predator could get her) and she was so sweet ... she'd imitate the others...peck and eat and then come sit next to me for a petting! I got so attached!

Each night I put her in early into her cage the others would come in to roost and cluck to her and she to them and she seemed content.

As the weeks passed she was able more and more to walk and learned to peck and scratch the ground...eat bugs and grass and all the good things outdoors.

The best was the day she'd watched for weeks as everyone took turns taking their dust baths...she'd obviously never done that before and then as the others left she went over and had a blast!

She clucked and they all seemed to cluck amongst themselves and then back at her..and there after ...talked their chicken talk and she'd cluck too...and they to her..and it seemed my other hens and even the roosters
knew she was different ...not as well or able as they...and for the most part seemed all to get along...I kept an eye out just in case.

But unfortunately her weight and probably all she'd been pumped up with before must have affected her health because she only lived 6 months. But in that time I watched her learn to be free and most of all how to BE a chicken...it was a blessing!

Thanks for letting me share her story!