My Name is Pearl *RIP Sweetheart*

[Lunachick]

My name is Pearl I am a Red Sex Link and this is my story. My mom adopted me and my "sister" Ruby (also a RSL) in 2007. We were ordered as started pullets and were debeaked as chicks before we were old enough to go to our new home. I don't remember our debeaking, it was so long ago and so many of us had it happen. We lived someplace big until me & Ruby were snatched and put into a box with holes in it and sent out to our destination. We were real scared. I'm shy and stuck my head and neck under Ruby's. Ruby always stayed above me and protected me. I will always remember that.


Before we got to our new home (we didn't know where we were going, we just did what we were told) we took a weird long ride to get to this one place. Then we waited for a long time and then went into a small truck with this nice lady. The lady talked to us and made sure we were sent to our new home earlier than the usual time, I think she felt sorry for us, it was May and kinda hot out. When we got to our new home, the young girl there took our box and put it into the back room where it was nice and sunny with lots of plants and then the door slowly slid shut and we were quiet and alone. Every once in a while the girl came in to give us water and check on us til our real Mommy came home from work. We stayed in our box for a couple of hours til the Mom came home and opened it to see us. I tucked my head under Ruby.......she covered me. The Mom cooed at us and tried to pick me up. I squawked......what's happening? Ruby ! Where are you? Wow, Ruby squawked too! But then we were cuddled and talked to and made comfortable in our new home out in the bright sunshine and safely tucked away in a small hutch. Then they left us alone. They did come back with a strange silver box that clicked at us.

That night - Mom came out and lifted the hutch lid and saw that me and Ruby were sleeping in the nest box. We weren't sure what to do and this was comfy. The next night Mom came out and picked me up to put on a roost. She did the same for Ruby. She did this to us every night until we did it ourselves. Then she didn't come out at night anymore, and we slept fine on the roost.

After a few weeks in our new home we started to relax and enjoy things. One of the best things I remember was the special treats we got! Everyday Mom came out and stuck her head in the hutch with this scoop thing and raked around in our bedding, then closed the top and we waited in the run for her to hand out our treats. We had grapes, and yogurt! Later on it was biscuits with cheese and scratch and......tomatoes! Then after a few weeks she let us out into the yard. Poor Mom, she looked a little miffed cause we kept getting into the garden to do our chicken thing and she kept making these little fences until the yard was different and we could no longer go into those other areas. But that's OK, she didn't stop us from destroying.....I mean rearranging the other areas in the backyard.

We enjoyed our life here and then something happened later in December of 2007. I think we knew it was coming.......Mom needed more of our kind. Like I said before, I'm shy, but maybe Ruby knows what's going on, she seems to know a little bit more of what's going on than I do. I don't like to worry about such things.

 

[Miss Sebright]

A good story, thank you for writing that.

 

[meriruka]

Too sweet! Wanna see the pics from the clicking silver box........

 

[Lunachick]

This is what I look like. I'm at the door of our new coop. (this was later on, Mom couldn't find our baby pics.

)

Anyway...........


December was mild from what I remember. Me & Ruby enjoyed just scratching around the yard and looking up into the sky - we always had to look to the sky..... we would growl and Mom would come out to see what was the matter. She said it was a small plane silly! and we would look at her like "are you sure?" OK Mom was right, no problem ...lets go scratch up some dirt. Then one day, we saw some kind of activity at the sunny room. We trotted up to the back sliding glass door and peeked in.

There was another chicken! And it was different and shrieking in a wild kind of way! We were perplexed....what's going on?

Later on when we tucked ourselves in - it wasn't quite dark yet and we heard Mom open the sliders and bring the carrier out. She headed toward the back part of our coop. We heard a muffled sound and then.............bawgawk! and a flapping of wings...........OH NO! Mom said. Our necks stretched out and we tried to see....what was going on? A wild bird flew way up into the oak tree! It must have been 25 feet up! Wow, what kind of chicken flies that far up? Buck buck buck ....squawk squawk squawk! And the new bird tried to settle for the night into the tree. Mom came out with some scratch and called "Henny Penny!" ( that was her name from where she came from) Come down! I have scratch for you! She pleaded and pleaded.............finally Henny Penny after looking around at the ground and then the trees...........decided on a small Juniper against the house. She flew right into the small tree almost like she heard Mom and decided that down there was way better than way up here in a large tree in a strange neighborhood.

Mom settled for that and went back in the house knowing there was nothing else to do at the moment. She will be safe and we'll check her in the morning.


5 A.M. Mom comes out and looks at the tree where Henny Penny perched. She can see her silhouette in the morning glow. "Henny Penny I have some goodies for you, please come down, etc etc etc. We watched, Ruby & I and wondered what it was all about. But we HEARD her and she was a chicken and we could tell she needed companionship and leadership. She was on her own and was a survivor and would do anything she needed to do to become part of this potential flock. We heard the pleading in her voice.

But first Mom had to get her into our coop. Were we ready for that?

Little birds flew into the Juniper and heckled Henny Penny. Titmice and Carolina wrens harassed her til she finally decided to come down. And she did, she flew over the 6' cedar fence and landed in the neighbor's yard. Which also faced the front street which was a busy street. Early morning traffic was already flowing and Henny was figuring out how to get her breakfast. She settled her little self onto the frosty grass and scratched around in the early morning light and Mom wondered.....how am I going to get her?

Mom and the young girl came out and lured Henny into our yard with cooked corn. (Her rescuer in NY said she loved it) OK! Now we have her in our yard, they closed the gate and stood in the yard to watch the fascinating world of chicken society.

Oh boy this was a new member! Ruby was the first to step on her! Not only that she also stomped on her and pecked at her neck - really not in a mean way. Sorta like poke poke poke but very determined. I watched in fascination.

I stomped on her too, but only a little. I pecked at her neck too. I will admit. But I did it because Ruby did. And it was understood. We worked on Henny Penny for a few days and Mom said OK you guys can be together but apart. What does that mean?

Mom was out there again mending fences and building additions to our home. We just watched. Henny was put into our pen but it had a wall of chicken wire so we could see each other and get used to seeing each other. January and February were wet and snowy and we talked through the fence everyday.

One day in late Feb Mom came out one morning with our treats. Instead of bringing 2 dishes, she brought 1 big one. She opened our gate and stooped in with our treat. After putting down our plate she reached over and opened the other pen and left it open! Mom went back out and said "have a good day, be good!" And left us on our own!

 

[Serrin]

I wanna hear the rest of the story!

 

[easttxchick]

I love the story so far. Pearl is beautiful.

 

[ArizonaNessa]

This is such a wonderful little story. Can't wait to read more.

 

[Fuffy]

Lunachick you story is lovely! Thank you so much for writing! Can't wait for the next installment !!!

 

[Miss Sebright]

I love it! We need to hear more!

 

[Lunachick]

Thank you everyone.

*ahem*


So everyday we did the same thing. Woke up and checked our surroundings, we were all OK. Even the new bird. She settled herself in pretty well and accepted her position without too much resistance. She needed a flock to join and we were the flock. She got pecked here and there by Ruby and I was there for backup (Ruby did most of the work, and she was really good at it) Me & Ruby were already laying eggs everyday. This new bird must have been young or under some stress, cause she did not lay for awhile. Then one day Mom came out and called the new bird "Dorothy". So, Henny Penny became Dorothy. It was kinda funny, Mom would say "Dorothy" in a wicked witch from the west kind of voice.

She became a very important bird in our flock.

Mom was out and about one day in late winter and saw Dorothy acting all fussy and making a big deal about the nest. She kept making a funny sound and messing with the nest material. We kept looking on and wondering when she was going to do it. Well! She finally laid her egg! And it was a fine pointy cream coloured egg. Not like our brown ones at all! We became good friends and once in a while Dorothy had to be pecked or jabbed at or even stomped on to refresh her memory of who's who. I just observed. Ruby was a good leader so I didn't interfere.

Mom had plastic wrapped all around our run and over the top so we could have fun outside and still be protected from the cold winds. Our heated dog bowl waterer was cleaned out every morning and fresh water was put in. But the three of us always looked forward to the morning treats. We didn't see Mom in the late afternoons, because she said she had to work and would be home late but would check on us and secure things at nighttime, and this bright light would flash into our small coop and we would strain our heads and look at the light on the floor of the coop........what was that? Then Mom's voice would say goodnight to us and we didn't have to worry about UFOs or predators, she made us feel safe.

Every so often the clicking silver box came out with Mom. She would put that thing in front of her face and *click* *flash*

We didn't mind, nothing bad happened. AND we would get treats after that. And things were fine.

This is the three of us in our old coop on the other side of the yard.

We were located right next to Mom's greenhouse. She let us in there on certain days and we would make dust baths in the dry ground! Bliss!

That's Dorothy on the left, Ruby in the middle and me. We had lots of fun that spring. But then in mid June we got another visitor. I'm sorry to say that this did not turn out well at all.