We had a real Christmas miracle today here at Lighthouse!!!!! Two of our chickens were "Turkens." Turkens are chickens who have no feathers on their neck. "Tom," was the rooster and "Prissy" was the hen." About two weeks after...
We had a real Christmas miracle today here at Lighthouse!!!!!
Two of our chickens were "Turkens." Turkens are chickens who have no feathers on their neck.
"Tom," was the rooster and "Prissy" was the hen."
About two weeks after we got them Tom disappeared. We found feathers from Tom at the fence and knew that he had been killed by a coyote or raccoon or something. We were heart broken.
Poor Prissy searched and searched for him.
A few days later she laid an egg and started sitting on it. It was only one egg, and we were pretty sure it was not fertile since Tom had been gone for days.....but she continued to take care of her egg so we just let her be.
This morning.... Bud found a chick, dead, in the nest and one crushed egg shell.
We could not find Prissy and thought maybe she had "flown the coop" after her chick was born dead.
About thirty minutes later Bud heard "cheeping" that sounded like a baby chick. He ran out front and found a baby chick in our pond!
Our one eyed cat, Lucy,
Click on the pictures to enlarge them.
was heading for the pond, attracted by the sound, and Prissy came out fighting!! She charged Lucy and ran her back.
Bud grabbed the chick out of the pond before it drowned and called me out to see it.
Now there was only one egg in Prissys' nest. And there was one dead chick. We could not figure out where the chick came from so we brought him inside to try to dry him off and figure out what was going on.
I took a couple of pics of this wet little guy under the Christmas tree and then we took the chick up so our two year old grandson, Joe, could see it.
Joe was fascinated and remembers seeing me release rescued birds. Anytime he sees a bird he will hold his palm up and point to it with his other hand....thinking the bird should come to his hand.
He was a little nervous at first....
....but we finally were able to convince him that he could hold it in his hand.
He was thrilled!!
Then we took the chick back downstairs and set him/her on the ground where he started "cheep cheep cheeping."
Another hen started toward us and we figured maybe it was her chick. But then Prissy came up the hill toward the sound of the cheeping and the chick ran straight to her!!
They turned and went back over the hill and Prissy started scratching around in the leaves showing her chick how to search for food.
After doing some research tonight guess what we found out!!!! The chick was a TWIN!!!!!!!!!!! It is VERY RARE!!!!!
Like I said...there was only one egg in the nest. Bud found the crushed shell this morning and a dead chick. There was only ONE shell.
It is possible for two chicks to come from a double yolked egg. So that is the ONLY explanation. Most of the time neither chick survives. There is not usually enough room in the egg for either of them to create enough momentum to crack the shell. So this little guy is a REAL rare kid.
We are calling him "Elvis," since Elvis had a twin that died at birth too.
Our little Christmas miracle!!!
Have a great Christmas and watch for those miracles!!!! They happen every day!!!
