Chicken Adoption

I was inspired to write today  - even though our family is feeling sad.  Last night one of our hens, and her three chicks flew over our back fence and got killed by our neighbor's dogs.  We thought for most of the day today that they must be around, but my husband found the evidence this evening that they aren't coming back.

The reason I wanted to make this post was the amazing story behind these chickens.  About six months ago we inherited a group of chickens from a friend of a friend who is battling brain cancer.  They were mainly older hens, many past the point of laying.  As the weeks went by, my husband noticed a "broody" hen in the bunch.  This hen spent all day and night in the nest box.  She wanted to hatch some eggs.  We don't have any roosters, so this was never going to happen, but she persisted.  She went days without getting up for food or water and we knew we had to do something.

My husband, on a whim, went to the farm center and picked out three two day old chicks.  He brought them home and put them under her - not knowing what might happen.  It was love at first sight for all of them!  "Mama Grace" as the hen became known instantly took up care of these three tiny balls of black feathers.  She kept them warm underneath her and lavished them with love and attention.  Christina, Sally, and Kayla (as the chicks were named by our kids) fell in love with Mama Grace as well.  They would ride on her back and stare up into her face with adoration.

The rest of the hens weren't so crazy about the chicks, so Grace and her adopted babies took up residence on our porch by day and in a dog carrier at night.  They loved to spend time in our garden.  Grace was fiercely protective of the babies - and was known to puff up and chase our lab, our kids, and my husband if she felt they were too close to her little ones.

When they were a month old, Christina was injured.  We still don't know how it happened.  She hurt her leg badly and couldn't walk when we found her.  We were sure she wasn't going to make it and put her in a box in our bedroom.  Grace was so distraught by this, that eventually my husband said he was going to give the baby back to Gracie and see what happened.  She stayed with her injured baby, encouraged her to try to move and protected her all the while.  Within weeks, Christina was up and around!  She had an extreme limp that diminished over time.

Within the last weeks we were noticing that the chicks are almost as tall as their mama - and that these birds who were all black when we got them, were starting to develop brown feathers on their necks that resembled Grace's (a completely different breed).

So today we are mourning the loss of our pets - and remembering and sharing a beautiful adoption story.  Grace loved those chicks as her own, and I'm sure she fought to the death to try to save them.