ChiChi on my desk
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ChiChi slept in the coop for the first time with all the other girls last night (Sun 7th Apr 2013 - and I forgot to take a photo!) and after I let them out this morning, she followed me into the house, had her fill to eat, as was her usual morning routine when I let her out of her basket next to my bed and she then summarily fell asleep on the towel in the bottom drawer of my desk. I presume she did not have a good night's sleep!
The battle of the pecking order had her running around in circles in the coop last night before it got dark as everyone let her know which roosts have been taken. I kept on popping around to the coop until it got dark to see how she was doing. As it got dark, I saw her on one of the bottom roosts, close to Snooky and Snookums, who have been great in taking her under their wing ever since she started joining them in the garden a couple of weeks ago.
It's now 3½ months ago that I found her all alone on the lawn on the 17th Dec 2012 after her mother (one of Solly's hens) and the rest of the newly-hatched babies had wandered off somewhere, so of course she was brought inside, placed in a basket next to a hot water bottle and kept warm until she surfaced, peeping for some food.
Since then she has spent all her time with me in the studio, either on my lap, walking on my keyboard as I work on the computer, wandering around the studio or roosting in the bottom drawer of my desk. At night she would follow me to the bedroom, climb in her basket, get covered with a towel and we all settled down for the night.
Soon we started taking some walks in the garden and, to her great delight, she discovered how to sand bath! Snooky and Snookums, who also grew up in my studio, soon taught her all the ropes necessary to 'survive' in the garden and thereafter ChiChi couldn't wait to go out in the mornings.
Enjoying a sand bath
Discovering grazing
Snooky & Snookums showing ChiChi where to find the best snacks
ChiChi with Snooky & Snookums and Micky in the foreground. ChiChi has to stay out of Micky's way, who is second-last in the pecking order and has discovered someone she can bully in return!
ChiChi on my knee, surveying the garden
But the time came when she didn't want to get into her basket anymore and started searching for something higher to roost on in my bedroom. That's just the sign I was waiting for, knowing that she is now big enough to join the rest of the girls in the coop.
Over the past 2 or 3 years I have raised many chicks either abandoned by their mother or even where the mother has fallen prey to some predator and it's a long time now since I've been free of taking care of some bird or another. So ChiChi's independance has left me feeling lonely and abandoned and I couldn't wait to open the coop this morning and greet her!
But, in the same breath, I'm also saying that I have sworn to give up this 'chicken rescue' business - it's a time-consuming business requiring dedication and commitment, especially the way I do it, worrying about what every peep and squeak might mean, whether the chick is too cold or warm enough, supplying a feather duster for day-olds to nestle under, putting something in the basket for height that they can 'roost' on, taking them with me in a basket when I go shopping, taking them for regular outings in the garden and generally being the 'perfect' mother hen.
But how can one NOT react to the call of an abandoned chick...?
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