Too Many Birds

This is so precious oh my god. There’s more under the cut. Also click HERE for full-sized pics and also a vid of a chicken screaming at the wind XD 

So back in July of 2021 we got a call from our neighbors about a random chicken that showed up in their yard, they assumed she was ours because we have a lot of chickens but I’d never seen this bird before

She’s unbelievably sweet and cuddly and we’re thinking that no way this isn’t someone’s beloved pet

So the next day I went out and drove to every neighbor to ask “hey this this your chicken?”

Nobody has any idea, my mom asks around on local pages but still, nothing

So for context my neighborhood is pretty big, not that many people but lots and lots of land. If this chicken didn’t come from any of our neighbors then she would had to have travel miles, which out here in rural Colorado where we are constantly surrounded by hawks, coyotes and raccoons would have been extremely unlikely.

She was also a bit malnourished, implying that she might have been out on her own for some time before being found. I also quickly realized something else about her, she is blind.

Not entirely blind but damn near close as her right eye is completely blind



Now the reason this has rendered her almost completely blind is thanks to a funny little quirk of chicken anatomy. Their right eyes are always near sighted and the left is always far sighted, this is the result of turning themselves in the egg so that the right eye is exposed to light through the shell, while the left is not, because it’s directed toward the body. So while she can see things far away just fine, everything that’s remotely close to her is a blur, making it difficult for her to navigate and eat

So we took her into our own flock, I named her Weah because I asked her for her name, since I didn’t know if she previously had one, and her response was “wwwwwrrraaah”. Getting her integrated into the flock was difficult, the other hens picked on her a lot and there wasn’t much she could do to defend herself, with no other options we decided to put her in the bantam coop, with it’s lone resident

This is Ash, a serama hen who we had gotten with a rooster, Cocktail, as a breeding pair. However after Cocktail’s passing she was left on her own

Now this didn’t bother Ash too much as she’d found a way to leave her coop whenever she wanted, even for a bird of her stature she was quite capable of holding her own in the main population

So here we are with two birds who couldn’t be any more different: Weah, a shy, clingy, visually impaired sex link, and Ash, a feisty, dominant, independent serama. It was the perfect storm.

Weah clung to Ask like glue pretty much from day one and Ash seemed surprisingly chill with the whole affair. In fact, she even started guiding Weah around while walking on her blind side, showing her around and helping her not get lost

Ash is very protective of Weah and will often tidbit for her and court her, Weah will call out to Ash whenever she’s not near by and will get distressed when she cannot find her

They’re both living happily in the larger special needs coop now, always together. Weah is doing much better with the help of her seeing eye girlfriend and has adjusted wonderfully!

So to conclude, if I had a nickel for every time there was a mutually beneficial lesbian relationship in my coop where one was saved by the other, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s kinda weird it’s happened twice

papaya: whatcha doin?

me: