The Humanity of Chickens

As the snow and ice fell and the sun set on a cold winter’s day, Bob took the trek to say good night to and close the chicken coop up for the evening.  We do this to keep them safe from night time predators looking for a treat.  All was well and all settled in for a long winters nap.

After a quick breakfast the next morning, Abby put on her snow clothes and traveled across the yard to the coop, equipped with warm water for the chicken’s breakfast.  When she got to the coop she did her morning head count and found not the expected eight hens, but rather only seven.  One girl had never made it home the night before.

Remembering that four of the sister hens had been playing under the deck while the snow fell the previous day, Abby quickly ran to see if the missing hen had stowed away there for the night and more importantly, had she survived.   Our little short feathered brown chick had indeed survived the cold, the predators and sleeping alone for the first time in her chicken life.  We gave her warm water, warm bowl of oatmeal and let her try to work her way out and home.  Yet she stayed put.

As we checked over and over to see if she had decided to move out of her perceived safety under our deck, I caught a glimpse of something that warmed my chicken loving heart.  I peered over toward the coop and saw one of her sister hens slowly navigating her way across the ice covered snow path from the coop to the deck.  She took time, tried not to slip and made her way to where her sister hen was sitting in fear.  She then sat next to her sister that had been missed all night.  She waited until her missing sister was ready and then they walked back to the coop together to join the rest of the family. The coop is now full of eight happy and healthy sister hens again.

Let brotherly love continue. -  Hebrews 13:1