IS IT WRONG TO PRAY FOR A CHICKEN?

I really like my chickens! They're all banties and, specifically, Cochin Banties which means they have feathers all the way down their legs. 


Our first batch of chickens (6, I believe) have long since been taken from us either by wild critters or our own dog who thinks of them as playthings. No matter that he's 70# and they weigh no more than three--given the opportunity he'll bat them around and wonder why they don't keep getting up. Someone said they'd get rid of the dog. But my response is that I had the dog before I had the chickens so he comes first. Besides, he's a Lab and part of this is in his DNA. His nature is to track down and retrieve--most often birds.


About a year and a half ago, when my Grandson suggested he'd like to see baby chicks again, we took the plunge and ordered 25 day old chicks from a supplier. They came in the mail! My husband picked them up at the post office.


We successfully raised them for a number of weeks until they were nearly grown when our Lab broke into their housing arrangement killing about half of them. I've never seen my husband more distraught and he gave Jake a wide berth for quite some time. But more than half did survive including Lady Grey, my favorite. Lady Grey isn't pictured here but like Dottie above, she's the same size and build but with soft grey feathers similar to what  you might find on a morning dove.

We've since had a very sturdy facility built to house our "babies" and have been successful at keeping them for over a year and a half with a relatively small attrition rate. The fact is, chickens die all on their own from time to time for no apparent reason. And we've tried to even the odds of getting colors I prefer by finding good homes for extra roosters. My husband carved out a little chicken door complete with ladder for them to walk up and down in the evening to go to bed and in the morning to come out and walk in the 1/4 acre garden. They do a good job of keeping the bug population down in the garden.

We currently have 9 full grown hens who give us 2-4 eggs per day and 3 roosters one of which will be given to a good home in a few days because A. we don't need THREE roosters for that many hens and, B. he's black and I just happen to prefer the lighter colors in our flock unless their feathers (like Dottie's above) are particularly interesting. Our little black rooster and his little black sister are babies raised by our own little hens. They're about 3 mos. old and he's beginning to crow so it's time to ship him off to his own little harem and let our white rooster, Mephitophlez, do the job he shares with Covert, the World's Ugliest Rooster!


In addition, we also have most recently, five babies that have hatched over the last few weeks (4 yellow and one black--yeah--he/she will probably also find a new home when it's grown up).


Every night when they've gone to bed, I check to make sure they're all safely enscounsed and close up all the doors to their shed. I do a head count but the other night Lady Grey came up missing. She may have been missing the night before, but my husband had closed them up while I was out and he doesn't do head counts--chickens are fine with him but not so much his "thing". 


I worried about her and did a brief garden check to see if there was sign of a struggle but to no avail and no matter how hard I searched for her in the shed, she simply wasn't in some hard to see corner and didn't come out in the morning for feed.


Most of the morning I felt bad for losing her trying to figure out what went wrong in all our safety procedures. For the most part, our chickens have heavy cover from hawks. So what could have happened to her was a mystery. I must admit, I did pray for her. Is that wrong when God has so many other things to worry about?


Shortly after noon, I heard some squawking on the north side of the garden and, though this is not uncommon, I decided to investigate. And, sure enough, there was Lady Gray--on the other side of the garden fence in our neighbor's yard! Pacing back and forth, it was clear she knew she was on the other side of the fence and she knew where she should be--back in our garden! 


My husband and I were able to scoop her up and let her fly to safety in our garden where she quickly grabbed a snack and headed for the chicken house to lay an egg!


Did my prayer work? And how had she survived one, possibly two, nights away from safety? I have no idea. But she's home safe and sound now and that's all that matters and my faith in God, though it never wavered, certainly was once again justified!


Peace and love,


Carol