On Thursday, Ruby officially let go of her babies. I normally write that the mama’s “ditch” their babies, but, for real, this was more of a gradual letting go–and Ruby is my hero for it. The babies made it to seven weeks, which is a good amount of time for the baby to develop. The kiddos, as I refer to them, still have no names. I am sure one is a boy, and the other one is an unusually challenging case. I’ve seen this go either way. But the kiddos are pretty big. They have each other, know the lay of the land around here, and are pretty self sufficient. I’m trying to win them over to me with treats, but they are hesitant, of course.
Ruby raised them so well, but it’s still hard to watch how hard it can be on babies when the mamas let them go. Ruby has been very gentle in the grand scheme of things, but she has still been mean to them. It just breaks their little hearts. Thank goodness they have each other.
Tonight as the worst though.
Right now, we have two giant dog crates in the driveway area, separate from the rest of the flock. It’s risky to have them in the driveway, but they stay very close to home. If we have a chicken who roams too much, they don’t get driveway time unless I am around to watch. Lucy is out because she is in hospice and doesn’t need a rooster on her back. I am very ashamed of Rooster for this, but I am trying not to hold a grudge because he’s getting old and not really who he used to be, sadly. But he’s still Rooster.
So we just moved Lucy out with Ruby and her babies, but Lucy has her own dog crate. I call it an apartment. Our teenager, Ronan, referred to them as “prisons” to me. “They’re not prisons,” I said. “I only lock Lucy in the crate at night for her safety. Plus, she’s asleep, so I’m sure it doesn’t feel like prison.” My son looked at me like,” calm down, lady.”
The first night Ruby kicked her babies out of their apartment and I went to close everyone up in the garage for the night, the babies were outside of the crate crying and crying. Ruby was sitting in there like, “I don’t know who these children are.”
I told Ruby she could at least give the apartment to the babies, and I pulled her out of the crate. I almost put her in the coop with everyone else, and then I decided to let her live in the garage until winter like she did last year. She hates it with the flock, even though she has moved up a little in the pecking order.
The second night, Ruby decided to kick Lucy out of her apartment! I pulled Ruby out of the dog crate, put her in the garage on a shelf/roost, and then had to go find Lucy. Poor old Lucy was hiding in the corner of the fence. I picked her up and put her to bed.
I didn’t know what to expect tonight when I went outside to put up the dog crates and tuck everyone in. I found Lucy in her crate and both Ruby and her babies in their crate! This surprised me, but Ruby was in the back allowing her babies to sleep in the front. But they couldn’t touch her, I guess, because everyone kept their distance.
Then, I saw the sweetest thing ever. The little black rooster is very vocal, just like his mama (Hector) was when she was a baby. He scooted right up to Ruby and put his little head down underneath Ruby’s head and sang the sweetest, sweetest little song you ever heard. I have tears writing this down because it was so beautiful.
I also have tears because of what happened next. Ruby, who always used to sing back to this little boy, pecked him on the head.
He cried and ran out of the create–brokenhearted.
