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...