Chat about the special chicken in your life!

[Nutcase]

Here is my special chicken:



I was told she is a Highland Brown - not the Australorp I dreamed of but still, she is very special to me. I bought her individually and the older hens would not accept her, so I raised her myself. Today she still pecks food from my hand and comes when I call her by name. Since the other hens still dislike her she tends to hang around people whenever she gets the chance. She loves being held and petted and is a teeny-weeny bit spoiled...I admit.


So who's your special chicken?

 

[Crafty-Duck]

This is Ruby she is a Production Red

She loves to fly on me and I just recently started bringing her in the house for some extra love,She has one of the best personalities!!!

 

[Nutcase]

That hen is a gorgeous colour. How does she like being inside the house? I've thought about bringing my hen inside but not sure about the mess she'd make

 

[Crafty-Duck]

She does fine in the house she likes to get special treats!!! as far as the mess I don't have her in long but when I do, I have her in one spot with some towels under her.I plan on making her a chicken diaper just for her to wear when she is in so she can have a bit more freedom.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Here is my special chicken:



I was told she is a Highland Brown - not the Australorp I dreamed of but still, she is very special to me. I bought her individually and the older hens would not accept her, so I raised her myself. Today she still pecks food from my hand and comes when I call her by name. Since the other hens still dislike her she tends to hang around people whenever she gets the chance. She loves being held and petted and is a teeny-weeny bit spoiled...I admit.


So who's your special chicken?

I use to have Highlands as well!!

But now I have Lohman Browns!

 

[BirdyMe]

Oh my...there's been so many special ones...they all are really. But here's my current baby girl:



This here is Miss Josie. I got her last spring as a Barred Rock chick. I had about thirty other chicks with her, and a blind rooster that babysat them all. In late April, I got home from the barn one evening to find a battlefield in my coop. My poor blind rooster, and most of my chicks were slaughtered. Something had ripped the staples holding the wire to the ground timbers out (I trapped the culprit that night. It was a monster raccoon, the size of my dog, who is a Pembroke Welsh Corgi). I moved my remaining 7 babies to an off-ground, wooden hutch, and cleaned up the carnage.

One of the surviving babies was Josie. She was 2 months old at the time. The next morning when I came out to feed, I noticed that she was looking poorly. I picked her up, and felt a massive wound on her belly that I had somehow missed the night before. I rushed her into the house, and my mom and I set up the kitchen table as a workspace. We checked her over- she was slit open from just behind her crop all the way back to left leg- down to the meat and bone. We pondered whether or not we should try and save her, or end her misery. Of course, I wanted to save her, but you have to be real, right?

I don't know what made me decide to save her- I am so glad now that I did! We cut away any feathers next to the wound, and washed it out well. Neosporin, my trusty bottle of Vetericyn, and a mixture of oils my mom put together were our best friends after that! I also got so many helpful suggestions and encouraging words from folks here at BYC! Here's the thread I posted for the wound: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/665839/graphic-picture-massive-wound-on-chick-any-ideas

Josie lived in a box on the kitchen table for about a month. I also had peachick eggs in an incubator at the time, so we called the table our own little avian veterinary and nursery center. x) Josie ate and drank normally from the start. She hopped around, she fell, she got back up, and she was always happy! She had a blueberry every day as her special treat.



Josie was doing extremely well- until we used aloe vera on her wound. We thought it would help her to heal. That night, she started throwing fits- seizures really. She would shake her head, flap, roll around, and cry. They were very irregular, and some days were worse than others. We had changed nothing aside from the aloe vera, so that's the only thing we can think of that might have caused it. We stopped the aloe, but the seizures kept coming. After several days, I was ready to put her down. I couldn't take any more of it. But again, I didn't.

The seizures lessened. She healed. The skin grew back and all! She still walked with a limp, but I knew she was feeling good enough to go outside, because she started jumping out of her box and roaming the kitchen table! I moved her outside to one of my empty rabbit hutches. I provided a roost for her, but she couldn't roost and put any pressure on her keel bone, so she just rested on the floor. The extra room in the cage gave her space to stretch, and the limp disappeared! Her siblings were now almost full size, and were running with the rest of the flock. Josie was still the size of a 9 week old chick, so I kept her in the hutch for almost two months, hoping she would grow a little so she'd be able to defend herself.

She didn't grow. Finally, I gave up and let her out one day. I stuck around to watch her. She was so happy to be out! She immediately ran towards the rest of the flock, who were having breakfast. Some of the older hens immediately hammered her on the head.....but then came Corey, my big, handsome, Easter Egger roo. Corey's my other baby, and he happens to be the head honcho of the flock.

Corey started pecking out his own breakfast, and then he started feeding Josie. I left them- Corey was going to take care of her.

To this day, Josie still follows Corey everywhere. She's still about the size of a nine week old chick, only she's filled out. She can walk underneath Corey and never brush his feathers with her head! Corey doesn't even really associate with any of the other hens now- he leaves them for the other roosters. Any treats he fins, he gives them to Josie. It really is the cutest, sweetest thing!!

Recently, I had both Corey and Josie in a smaller cage (Corey had lost a massive spur, and was having trouble healing. I put Josie in there for company). One morning, I went out and found a small, ivory colored egg in their cage- Josie was laying! We really can hardly believe it. We thought she would never lay, after having been ripped up so bad.

Josie comes when called- with Corey right behind her. She doesn't really like to be held- I don't think she likes any pressure on her keel still. However, she did learn to roost. She holds her own now, and she's my little baby!

 

[Chickenfan4life]

What? Only one favorite chicken? Never! XD

But, alas, I do have one particular favorite chicken:


Isabelle:

I got Isabelle as a straight run chick from Atwood's. She was a healthy chick when I got her, but then she got majorly sick. She was almost dead when she "pulled up" and started eating and drinking. I continued taking care of her, and, despite silkies growing slow, she grew up quickly! She grew from a tiny, sickly chick, to a large, full-fledged hen in no time at all. However, she took forever to come into lay!

She was almost 11 months old when she finally started to squat. A few days later, she happily sang the egg-song after laying her first egg! It was bloody and small, but very pretty, with a light cream colored shell. Whatever people say about silkies being bad layers, Isabelle proves them wrong! She lays an egg every day, even in winter!

Naming Isabelle was a tough thing to do. I started with the name Snow. Then I decided to call her Bessie. Then, I continued on to call her Bella, but that just didn't fit at all. So, I asked Mom. She just randomly blurted out "Isabelle" and I declared that to be her name. Isabelle used to be a snow white color, but the sun always beaming down on her feathers turned them yellow. I don't care. She isn't show-quality anyway. I just say that her feathers reflect the summer sunlight.

She is a very indecisive broody. One day, she'll decide the wants to be a broody, but the next day, she's forgotten all about being a broody, and I'll take the eggs away. Then she'll lay another egg the next day and not brood it. But, a few days later she will brood an egg or two. She isn't a mean broody like some people may have. She will puff up and squawk, but she never pecks. Good Izzy.

One thing that Isabelle has always been is L-O-U-D! Even as a day-old chick, she had the loudest voice in the brooder. She had a long, shrill peep-peep! Now, she has the loudest voice in the barn! She has a distinctive bwauuuwk-bwauwk-bwauwk! sound. She does it so loud her voice sorta shakes, like an opera singer, or something.

I love my dear, sweet Isabelle. She is my special, special girl.

 

[Sk8inChick(en)]

My special chicken is Lady Catherine de Bourgh, or "Kitty." She is best described as the "Sassy lap-chicken." She will lay on her back in my arms and not struggle at all, and she'll have a chat with you when you hold her. That being said, she has no trouble letting the dogs know when they're bothering her. She's been known to peck the muzzle of our 45 and 65 lb. dogs. Yes, she is a nice mix of "chickenalities."

Kitty also loves to pose for you. She will talk as if she hates the camera, but I know she's just being modest.

She loves to pose for me, and give me her trademark slightly sweet/ slightly stink eye. Kitty is also a talented chicken. She is about 9 months old, and hasn't laid an egg yet, although we aren't surprised since she is a Brahma. However, her sister, Georgina, started laying promptly at 5 months. Kitty is Georgie's midwife. She always keeps her company while she lays her egg, and as of late, Kitty has begun perching on the edge of the box where Georgie lays. Kitty will yell at you if you dare open the window while Georgie is in the delivery room.

Kitty always has something to say to you. If I talk to her, she always responds; "bawk bawk, bagawk berk berk?" Except when you ask her about laying an egg. Absolute silence.

The princess always requests a lift down from the coop in the morning. After all, special girls like her never bother with the likes of a ramp when there's a human ready and willing to give her a lift. And of course she takes up a case with the chauffeur, if she doesn't get her way. She squawks until I either lift her out, or leave her to figure it out on her own. This chauffeur usually takes the former route.

Edited to add: The tailor is currently crocheting a red sweater for the Lady to wear on her winter outings.

Now, this story would not be complete unless I included a picture (okay, pictures) of the Lady herself.

 

[Crafty-Duck]

What a Pretty Girl

 

[Sk8inChick(en)]

What a Pretty Girl

Thank you!