Unusual, but sweet, chicken behaviour

sumi

Rest in Peace 1980-2020
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I have a young pullet that I've hatched in an incubator along with a few others. We moved them out into their own run awhile ago, but she liked jumping out and free ranging. We do have a bit of a predator problem and unfortunately a predator attacked her. She miraculously got away (the first one to do so), but the skin on the back of her head got ripped clean off.
My DH and I put ointment on and cuddled her and let her stay in our house so the other chickens don't peck her wound. In the evening we had a BBQ. We made a fire on the ground and I was sitting on an old mattress near the fire, about 20 feet from the house. I heard the pullet call and saw she was standing by the door. I called her, telling her to come to me. She hesitantly walked out into the dark, still calling me and I kept calling her and she came closer, stopped, called, I answered, she came closer... When she came close to the fire she got a bit nervous, but I talked to her and realised she couldn't really see me, she was flowing my voice. I eventually got her close enough to me to pick her up, by this time she was very worried about the fire. I put her on my lap and cuddled her and she quickly fell asleep. Quite relaxed despite being close to the fire.
What really touched me was the way she went out in the dark, which my chickens will never do and walk towards the fire even though it clearly terrified her. She wanted to be with me so much. It was incredibly touching.
 
That is a sweet story.
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It's amazing how some animals respond to you when you're nursing them back to health. They can really tug at your heart.
 
That is very sweet. Some of my pullets will follow me during the daytime, but this story shows some courage!
 

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