All of the animals on our farm have a story, but none like that of Whitey the Chicken.
As many of you know we raise meat birds on our farm, the breed is called "Red Range". We receive the day old chicks in the mail, last year we had 3 batches of 85 chicks arrive at different times through out the summer. We start them at our home in a small chicken coop with a heat light and access to to the chicken yard. When they are large enough that they no longer need a light we bring them down to the farm where they live in the portable chicken house, that we move around to different pasture when fresh grass is needed. This is where Whitey's story begins.
Whitey was a part of the third and last batch we moved down to the farm, we never really noticed anything different about her, except her feathers were much lighter than the rest of the birds. Red Range meat birds are as their name suggest, red in color. Sometimes they will have some white or black feathers, but the red is predominate.
In the fall Krys and I (Heather) go over to the Adirondacks for a canoe camping trip. During that time in 2007, my mother had the duty of watching over our chickens. My mother who has always been on a farm and has had much more experience with animals than us, is very observant when it comes to odd animal behavior.
When Krys and I returned from our canoe trip, my mother told us about a white chicken that was being attacked by all the other chickens. It seemed that the white chicken would hide in the corner behind the grain can and only come out to grab some food, but when she would peek out form the can the other chickens would attack, sending her back to her hiding spot. Could it be that chickens are racist? We tried not to ponder that thought too long, but there seemed no other reason for the attacks except that Whitey was almost pure white and the rest of the birds were all red. After multiple request from my mother we brought Whitey home to live with our laying birds, all of who were different colors. I can not say that they welcomed her with opened wings, but they did not attack her. She stayed inside at first and was very timid about eating with the other chickens, but soon was accepted as part of the flock. In December all the young layers started to produce beautiful eggs including Whitey.
This would be enough of a story about a chicken, but Whitey is not your average bird.
When spring came all the chickens were laying eggs and production was high, the layers seemed to be in a good routine, eat, drink, peck at stuff and lay eggs. Whitey was no exception, until our first batch of meat birds arrived. As in the past they came in the mail as day old chicks and were placed in the small chicken coop next to the layers. All the layers we curious about the chicks, but Whitey watched them more than any other. We joked about her planning her revenge on the Red Range birds, now that she was so much bigger than them. Nothing could of been farther from what Whitey really wanted.
When it was time we packed up the chicks and brought them down to the barn to the portable chicken house. We had no idea how this would effect Whitey. She wouldn't leave her laying box and she was sitting on her eggs day and night. To make a chick you need a rooster, which we do not have, so Whitey's sitting was all in vane. Krys and I talked about poor Whitey and how much she wanted a chick, so we decided that with the next batch of chicks I would take one out and present it to Whitey and see what she would.
It was a wet rainy friday morning when the chicks arrived and Whitey was still sitting, hoping that her eggs would hatch her a chick. I waited a couple of days so all the chicks could settle in before we attempted the adoption. It was monday afternoon and Whitey was where she always was, in her laying box sitting. I walked in on her and reached my hand under her belly to remove the eggs she had laid, she was not very happy with me. After I took the eggs I put one of the small meat chicks in her box with her, she didn't know what to do. Luckily the chick did. The chick walked up to her and started to disappear into the feathers of Whitey, Whitey seemed very pleased. I left the two alone for a while and checked in to make sure everything was going ok. It didn't take long for Whitey to become very protective of her chick and the chick was happy to have a mother. I did try giving Whitey another chick, but after one warning peck as if to say one is enough, I returned the chick to the Red Range chicken coop.
It has been three weeks since Whitey and her chick meet and they do everything together. Whitey has to be one of the best mother I have ever seen. She is teaching her chick to peck at worms and bugs and even how to stand up for herself.
If you ever find yourself feeling like you are the white chicken in a flock of red birds, or that you are sitting on a loss cause, remember the story of Whitey. A meat bird who became a layer and a mother and not some body's dinner.
