A Foster Clucker Mother

It was bound to happen. I'm a Mother Clucker again. This time, however, I'm only a temporary one (at least, for the moment).

The original plan was to add one of the rare breeds of chickens to my little flock of 4. I had my heart set on a lavender orpington and I knew that there would be no way that I could raise one chick by itself for multiple reasons; one, she would get cold even with a heat lamp and two, she'd be lonely since chickens are flock animals and need at least one buddy.

I had a Cluck Buddy of my own who was wanting to raise another group of chicks to replace his flock of 6 who were massacred by a duo of dogs at the dawn of the new year. This seemed to be the perfect plan-- I'd get my one lavender chick and raise this one with the others. I wouldn't get attached to the others-- they'd just be there to keep my little chick warm and company until she was old enough to join my ladies out in the Cluck House.

As fate would have it, once I got the new chicks and they were settled, the lavender orpington wasn't strong enough to survive and she died on the second day that she was with me. This presented a whole new challenge-- would I call the Cluck Buddy and tell him that he needed to come get his chicks to raise on his own or would I continue to raise the remaining chicks and order another lavender? Of course, the latter is what happened.

I swore that I would not get attached to these temporary chicks while in my wait for a new chick. I wouldn't name them, I wouldn't pay much attention to them beyond making sure that they were fed, warm, watered and bottoms cleaned when needed. Yeah, that lasted all of 3 days.

Three of these chicks now have names; Turkey, Buttercup and Vanilla and I'm thinking that I need to name the other two as well (you know, so they don't feel left out). I say "hello" to them every morning and every evening when I come home. I've gotten to know their personalities and I've gotten intimate with them in cleaning their little bottoms when they forget to wipe. Side note: neither one of us, chick nor Mother Clucker, enjoys having to wash dirty bottoms.

It's going to be hard to let them go in just a few short weeks when they go to my Cluck Buddy's home in the country.

Meanwhile, I wait for the arrival of my new lavender orpingtons (yes, you read that correctly-- there will be more than one that is coming- stay tuned for that story in another post). I'm trying to be the best Foster Mother Clucker in the meantime and will keep talking to them and keeping the little cluckers happy.