Saturday, March 7, 2009

Honey and Bea

I don’t know when I changed from the girl who would throw herself in front of a beetle to keep it from being tortured, to the woman who cringed and walked away when baby chicks were in danger. Picking up cat food at our local feed store turned into an ordeal today. Oliver was delighted to see several dozen chicks in a trough, chirping peacefully. Calm turned into pandemonium as chicks were running from one end of the trough to the other to avoid two children (old enough to know better) trying to capture them. Their mother said, “Leave them alone,” and went to order her hay. The children stopped briefly then began trying to hold chicks again. I felt a pit of worry for the babies, so I walked outside to get my cat food (avoidance). As I walked back into the main room, I heard a woman say, “Don’t hold it by its neck, you are going to hurt it!” Then another said, “Look what you did! You threw it and it can’t walk.” There she was, lying under the other chicks, unable to move. We decided we needed another chick, and named her “Bea.” The boy’s mother paid for her. That should make up for Bea’s possible back injury.

Bea was happy being held and would eat out of our hands, but peeped loudly when we put her in her box.


I quickly started feeling guilty about having Bea sleep alone, so we drove back to the feed store to pick up a companion for Bea. “Honey” (Oliver named her) is probably the cutest chick I have seen and she seems to love Bea.


Bea is able to move around her box slowly and got a drink of water on her own. We hope she will heal as she grows bigger. Next time I’m yelling at the kids. I don’t care if they have a Mom nearby.

7 comments:

  1. What a sweet story and good for you for involving yourself.

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  2. Thanks Barbara! I'm enjoying reading your blog.

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  3. Are you kidding? I would have collared those brats. I don't care if I make a scene or not. I'm glad you rescued Bea. She looks like what our Australorp chicks looked like when we first got them. And Oliver looks like a Cornish Cross. He's a lot bigger than little Bea so I'm thinking he's a meatie for sure.

    And now that you've been bitten by the chicken bug, when are you going to go back and buy a whole flock???

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  4. Oops! I meant to say "Honey", not "Oliver" in my post! Silly me!

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  5. Amy,
    I really wish I had made a scene. I feel bad every time I look at Bea. She is an Australorp-good guess! Honey is a Golden Sex-link. We already have 13 chickens. I love chickens, so sweet and they give you eggs too! Thanks, Jess

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  6. What sweet chickens - even though the situation was less than sweet. My guess is that if you would have made a scene, the mother of those two brats would have probably ripped your head off and then you'd be limping instead of the chick - screwed up as it may seem!

    Thanks for sharing. I just love baby chicks!

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  7. Beautiful chicks, Jess! Good for you for rescuing Bea & adopting Honey as her friend. This is close to how I ended up with an injured ferret when making a quick stop to buy pet food. She cost me $1200 for surgery to save her life...long story but she turned out to be one of the best pets and friends I ever had! Glad to meet a kindred spirit who jumps in to rescue animals in trouble! We had three golden sex-links in our first batch of chickens - they were absolutely lovely and very gentle chickens. Julia

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