Friday, August 31, 2007

SUN BLOCK AND THE BALD CHICKEN

This is a picture of Lucy once most all of her feathers grew back. The area that is still bald took months to come in fully. Wasn't she darling?




Many years ago when we lived in Bend, Oregon on five acres I decided to start a farm. Well my idea of a farm being a city girl who grew up in San Diego. Let me skip past the no running water, bunny and goats part of the story. I will give you that one another day. Fast forward to Lucy the bald chicken. My sister more the country girl then I was ever going to be raised chickens. So one day while I visited her and her four kids she asked me to stay inside with the kids. When I asked what she was going to do she told me she had to shoot a chicken. ACKKKKK!!! Shoot it???? Like shoot it dead? She said yep, the other chickens will kill it if I don’t and I have to be humane about it. Well what happened was the other MEAN WICKED EVIL chickens started picking on this one. They plucked her feathers out one by one. I guess with Chickens once they get to blood they do not stop their pecking and would have killed this chicken. Okay so I see my sister did not want this chicken to die a slow horrible death. She asked me do you want to see if before I shoot it? Sure when was the last time I saw a bald chicken before it’s death? Well let me say this chicken looked just like what you buy at the grocery store to eat. Except it had black feathers on her feet and head. I instantly felt even more horrible for this sweet creature. My sister said she would grow her feathers back if she could keep her from the other chickens. Here is where it all happened…. Fast forward a bit more… I had two goats and one bunny in a fenced in area of my yard. I came home and tossed my newly named bald chicken, Lucy, into the fenced area. The other animals were not real sure of her but did okay with her. The next day I hear my husband say “ hey is that a chicken in the goat pen? It has no feathers but looks like a chicken”. Me who was told NOOOO more animals looked out the same window and said “ hmmmmm looks kinda like a chicken.” Then he knew that I had smuggled her in! Our pen was not all shaded and it was now the middle of summer. We live in the high desert so it can get pretty warm. When I went out to feed my animals I noticed Lucy was a bit red. So this is where I admit I am a nut!! I ran in the house and came out with sun block and rubbed Lucy all down with it. My neighbors on one side, of course I happened to lived right in the middle of REAL country people, saw me doing this to Lucy. The man yelled hey are you oiling that chicken up to cook? His wife yelled what are you doing with a bald chicken? I had to explain the story to them. If you listen closely you can still here them laughing. I remember hearing “ Oh Stacey shoot that chicken and eat her!!” What is it with country people wanting to eat everything on the land? I sun blocked Lucy the whole summer. She grew feathers in very slowly. The middle of her back took the longest to grow back. Lucy would come out of the pen every morning jump into my lap and let me rub her down with her sun block and just sit there like a cat and enjoy the company. She really was a sweet chicken, her and I became friends. She would sleep cuddled up to the goats. Sometimes I could look out and see her riding on one of their backs. You can’t even start to imagine how cute they were all together. Once Lucy grew most of her feathers in she started laying me one green egg a day, rain, snow, or desert heat she was faithful to me for that one egg and I always knew it was her way of saying THANK YOU!! So I hope my chicken story made you feel as warm and cuddly as it did me remembering the story and typing it out for you. I had thought of embellishing the story to make it super exciting but I like the real story of Lucy. Lucy lived a wonderful pampered life until she was so old she did not wake one morning. I know she is in Heaven living happily ever after now. Any time I see a green egg I always remember Lucy.
Please be sure to leave a comment! I really enjoy coming back and reading them. You can post anonymous, use your name or blog address. Just click on comments...

15 comments:

KATE said...

Oh my word, Lucy is famous now! That is so funny, I don't even like the bald chickens in the grocery store! You're a nice, nice person! I'm so glad there are people like you out there, b/cuz I would have let my sister shoot the thing! And, sunscreen too! You deserve a medal!!
-Kate

Anonymous said...

Too funny! You are a way nice person to rescue Lucy and give her a good life :)

Denise said...

I forgot about Lucy. Too funny. Tell everyone about Joy, who liked to stomp out fireworks!:)

All moments remembered said...

LOL Denise!! I almost forgot about the fireworks!!! I have so many fun animal and life stories! I guess I can write them here and hope to entertain someone with them. 100's have read this blog in the last 24 hrs I just wish more people would leave comments. How fun that would be to read them from all over the world. I will work on more of my stories soon.
Hugs!!

Anonymous said...

Gotta tell you a story I heard at my Grandmother's

Seems there was a couple who lived on a farm. They grew peaches. They also had alot of chickens. The peaches had ripened on tree, but seems that there was some that had fallen off and was laying on the ground. The days were hot, and it didn't take too long for the peaches to ferment. One afternoon the couple decided to go into town. When they returned, all their chickens were laying on the ground. The couple couldn't figure out what killed their chickens. They weren't quite sure what to do with them, and finally decided that they would just clean them and put them in the freezer. So the couple got busy, and it wasn't too long before they had all the chickens plucked clean. They were getting hungry so they went inside for a quick bite, then they were going to finish up with the chickens. About half way through the meal, they hear alot of squawking. They look outside and there is their chickens wobbling and teetering. Turns out that they had gotten ahold of the fermented peaches and they were drunk and passed out, not dead. They then had naked chickens. Don't know what they did with them. This is suppose-ably a true story.

Heidi said...

Wow what an awesome story. You are really great at telling stories. It isn't amazing how much better our lives are for having animals/pets in it. You are totally crazy like me though, I would have put sunscreen on the chicken too! Course my husband would be saying let's just eat her. Thanks for sharing. Loved it. And thanks for visiting my blog.

Nancy said...

Oh, Stacey. I would have done the very same thing. I can't stand seeing an animal suffer.

When I pulled up your blog and saw a picture of Lucy, I had a giant mouthful of Diet 7-Up in my mouth and almost sprayed my entire screen. That was a close one.

Thank you for brightening my day. :)

Laura Cionca said...

Awwwww!!! I would have done the same thing! Such a heartwarming story put a smile on my face both times I read it!

Anonymous said...

Now that's just precious!"

When I was little we had a hen name Gertrude - and she slept with my dog Ben - she gave him an egg a day for his protection - it was so cute. Wish I had pics of it!

Anonymous said...

You aren't the only one soft hearted in this way. I'd have rescued her too. Bless my wonderful bf for not getting upset every time I bring home another animal someone else was going to have killed rather than take the time to care for.

I'm down to two cats right now because I'm temporarly in an apartment. Both rescues. They mostly like each other and they entertain me constantly.

Anonymous said...

Great story! You are too cute!!

Personally, I would have raised a pig, too....and, eaten them both!!

Green eggs and ham, of course!!

Flowerchild

Anonymous said...

That has got to be the cutest story ive ever heard! My mom is a total farm girl, she grew up on a farm. But i can totaly see her doing the exact same thing that you did with Lucy! thats just too funny, sweet, and cute all at the same time! Thanks for sharing the story of you bald chicken! LOL!

Jingle said...

That is so cute! Stacey!!! I wish I could have met Lucy! My MIL had a pet chicken when she was a kid, but the story wasn't that sweet and it didn't have the happy ending!

Dee said...

absolutely FANTASTIC story, stacey . . . thanks for sharing!!!

Anonymous said...

OMG, Stacey, what an incredible story. I could just picture this chicken sitting on your lap! That is so sweet.