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| Pearl |
Pearl is another Light Brahma - one of the large, fluffy white ones with feathers on her feet. She is the middle Brahma - Thelma being the largest and Bernie the smallest. But Pearl is special - Pearl was, unfortunately, a favorite of the roosters. I try not to anthropomorphize the chickens, but sometimes its hard not to. We used to have two roosters (Cornelius the red rooster (the more docile) and his brother the white rooster(the aggressor)). The roosters would tag team the hens and sort of gang up on them. Initially it was very disturbing, but then I thought - now Ashley - they're chickens - don't go putting your human emotions on them. They're animals, its just what they do. Sex among animals is different than among humans, so don't go feeling bad for the hens with the two roosters all over them. But then we noticed that two of the hens, Pearl and Rhonda, had wounds on their necks. The rooster usually grabs on to the hen's neck when it mounts. Rhonda's neck wasn't too horrible, but Pearl's was awful. That's the day we decided that the white rooster would be dinner - our first attempt at harvesting a chicken - and that the red rooster would remain as the sole rooster and be named. I got home from work the day that we discovered just how severely wounded Pearl was and Matt had turned our kitchen into an operating room. The lamp, sutures, bentadine, scissors, were all ready for me. Matt held Pearl and cleaned up her wound and I sutured it as best I could. It had been many years since my short-lived wild bird rehab career, but I managed. It took her a little while to completely heal and for her neck feathers to grow back, but she is doing just fine now. I think all the hens are happy to just have one rooster 'taking care of them'.
