My friend Heather rescues stray chickens. She started with just a few, after friends who captured wayward hens brought them to her. When Heather’s flock grew to 13, she built a chicken coop in her backyard. Once a month she makes a supply run to Alaska Mill and Feed to stock up on cracked corn and layer mash. The good news is that fresh eggs are a side benefit of chicken rescue.
Last June, Heather noticed that one of the hens was brooding (sitting on four eggs). With no rooster in the flock to fertilize the eggs, there was no possibility of the eggs hatching. So Heather drove to Palmer and returned with four fertilized eggs and slipped them under the hen.
Twenty-one days later, only two chicks hatched. Within days, one chick slipped under the fence and disappeared and the other chick died, dashing the mother hen’s hopes for a family.
Heather took another trip to Palmer, returned with four little peeps and slipped them under the hen’s nest. The mama hen cackled loudly and tucked the peeps under her wings to keep them warm. Heather smiled whenever she saw the proud mother hen leading her chicks away from the fence and strutting proudly across the yard.
Giving a hen the opportunity to raise a family may seem small and insignificant in a world where the quest for power and greed run rampant, but acts of kindness toward man or beast are what makes our community great.
— Millie Spezialy
Anchorage
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