My Name

Lola, Lola, Lola

The best thing about the first day at my new home was that it was a short day. The next several days seemed to last forever. The other 4 hens (OFH) made my life miserable. My WEF and I were suffering together. We couldn’t do anything right and were being pecked for no reason. I know I lost a few feathers!

The daily treats sure helped make me feel better. When I would stay for extra treats, the nice lady would talk to me while I ate out of her hand. Then she started using the same word over and over again when she would talk to me—Lola. Soon, I noticed that she did the same thing with the others, but she would use different words for each one. They are Iron Maiden, Sis, Ebony, Goof Ball, and Pawhearska. Now that last one is really hard to say, so I just call her my WEF.

Treats

The best part of the day is when the nice lady comes out and talks to us and gives us treats. In the morning she brings us some chopped greens and oats. She gives us the treat through the fence, and I sometimes bite her finger. It's just an accident, but she sure lets out a whoop.

Then we have bread and yogurt in the afternoon. It has taken me a while to start liking the yogurt. The OFH really like it so I decided to try it. It’s really good! I think it helps keep the shells of my eggs nice and strong.

In the evening she tosses some kind of seed and corn mixture on the ground and says, “Here, chick, chick.” No matter where we are, everybody runs to her and gobbles it up. As long as my WEF and I don’t get in the OFH’s path to the treat, we don’t get pecked. When the evening treat is all gone, the others wander away and start looking for other things to eat.

I usually stay close to the nice lady hoping she will give me some more of that good treat—and she does! She talks to me, but I’m not too sure I want her to touch me. (Remember the wing clipping?!) I eat out of her hand, though. Although we always have regular chicken feed in our pen, the treats make us feel like special chickens.

Wing Clipping

I can't believe what the nice lady did to me! Just because my white-eared friend (WEF) didn’t make it into the hen house the first night and hopped up onto the top of the hen house—really!

The lady and the man came into the pen with some kind of tool that has 2 blades and a handle on each blade. (I think I heard the people call them scissors.) The other 4 hens (OFH) didn't run from them, but my WEF and I sure did. But they had that net thing they had used to catch my WEF, and they managed to catch us both, one at a time.

My WEF was first. The man held her, the lady spread out her right wing, then she--HORROR OF HORRORS--cut off her wing feathers! I was next. I tried to tell her that I promised I wouldn't try to fly out of the pen, but she couldn't understand me. I was expecting excruciating pain, but there wasn’t any. In fact, she only cut off about an inch of the feathers. So if I hold my wing just right, nobody can tell. But I’m still so embarrassed!

Arriving at my new home

The day that I arrived at my new home was traumatic. I was plucked from my familiar surroundings, carried upside-down by my feet, and put in the back of some kind of big, noisy, moving box.

The only good thing about it was that I wasn't alone. My friend with the white ears was with me, going through the same kind of humiliation. When the big moving box finally stopped moving, we were once again, jerked up by our feet and carried to our new pen. There was this nice lady who greeted us and turned her head upside down and told us we would be let loose soon--at least I think that's what she said.

We were let loose inside a new pen, and there were 4 other hens there. By the way the big red one looked at me, I knew I was in trouble. Those other 4 hens started in right away letting us know that we were new, and that we were on the bottom of the chicken totem pole.





When the sun started going down, I followed the other 4 chickens into their house and found a safe place away from them to nestle down for the night. But my friend with the white ears didn't come in. Later, the nice lady came outside and checked on everybody. I had just fallen asleep when some kind of light pierced through the darkness of the house. The lady was looking for my friend. She finally found her on top of the house. Poor thing. After lots of coaxing and the use of some kind of net, she was put into the house. She was a nervous wreck. She felt much better when she found me. We slept very well that night.