Meet Stubs

Look at this pretty little girl. Boy, does she have a tale to tell. She was one of the original birds I got, and one of the little chickens that's on my banner. She is also the egg layer right now. Yay stubs! Love this little bird. She was called a 'Production Red' when I bought her.

She is the top hen. I was really surprised to find this out, since I re-introduced her into the flock after some time. She was the oldest, so I'm not sure if that makes a difference or not. I thought with her disability she would get pecked. Quite the contrary! She does the pecking!

She is ALWAYS the first bird out in the morning.

Here's her poor little chicken feet. I'm assuming a raccoon chewed her toes off. Have I told you lately how I hate coons? Oh yes. The feeling festers. While we were camping, a friend of mine kept my birds, and they were just little babies. She kept them all up in a rabbit hutch. Well something held little Stubs down and chewed her toes off! My friend kept her and nursed her back to health. I had Helen at the time. It was a regular chicken rehab around here!

I was so concerned that Stubs wouldn't be able to walk up the ladder, or do other little chicken things. She can't roost, or prepare her dust baths. Helen dutifully prepares them for her. She can't scratch her head, so I do that for her. Other than that, she's a full fledged chicken bird.

She's the first one to come a runnin' when I call the birds. She seems like she likes to be held. I play with her little 'flapples' all the time. I think they are called wattles, but I like calling them flappies. So there.

I told the girls all about our trip to the Museum of Contemporary Art. Stubs was quite intrigued. I think she feels a little left out with all the creativity about the coop. She can't hold a needle like the other girls. She wanted to try her hand at painting. Of course, I obliged. I'm never one to squelch a creative mind.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that it just looked like chicken scratch to me. She was SO pleased with herself. I'll hang it in the coop to encourage her. She's wanting oil paints, but I'll only get her the non-toxic latex paint. Can you imagine cleaning oil paint off of those claws?

She's pretty good at rolling out pie crust too. The other girls claws get in the way and shred the crust up. I can tell by the look on her beak that she takes great pride in that.

Oh little Stubs. How I love you. I'll scratch your itches and play with your flappies all day. You are my little baby sweet bird.