We have a pet chicken, her name is Lucy. I've wanted to own chickens for a long time, and about a year ago we took the plunge. She was just a teeny reddish brown chick at first, such a precious little bit of fluff. She also peeped a lot. Here's a photo of Lucy when we first got her, eating out of her food dish.
Here's a link to a video of what reds look like as chicks, so you can see the cuteness and hear the peeps for yourself.
She's got a nice coop and a place to run around in our backyard, here's a picture of her with our other chicken, Kooky.
What I love about having chickens is watching them around the yard. I look out the window and I can see them in their coop or, on some nice days, scratching around the house. They like to scratch and peck at the ground, flap their wings (they can fly short distances, if they need to) and walk. When the leaves are on the ground they push them aside with their beaks and claws to get to the bugs underneath. Watching them do this is funny, you see FLOOF FLOOF the leaves getting tossed in the air and know they are doing their work. Did you know, they eat fly eggs and ticks? When they peck at the ground, their tails move as a balance to the rest of their bodies, which gives their bodies kind of an up-down-up kind of motion.
I love just owning chickens, taking care of them, listening to them coo and cluck, and seeing how happy they are when I give them a treat. It's such a nice, calming, happy feeling.
They are a beautiful breed; we have Rhode Island Reds, which means they have brown feathers with red highlights and white pins. Here's a breed photo so you can see what I mean.
Sad story; a few weeks ago we lost our bigger chicken, Kooky, to a neighborhood dog. The dog was just being a dog, and we don't know which neighbor the dog belongs to. She died pretty quickly but it was still a horrible thing to watch and so sad. I wish I could have stopped the dog, but I know this kind of thing is inevitable. She had a good, happy chicken life, with a nice warm house and plenty of food and drink, and that's comforting.
We've got room in the coop, so we're likely going to get a few more chickens come the springtime. Chickens are social animals, and we know that Lucy is pretty lonely now by herself. Hopefully she makes it through the winter all-right, and then she'll have some more company.
Please tell me about animals that you've connected with.
