Willie... We Thought She Was A Boy... and Dead... Once!

 Today we honor and remember Willie. Willie was with us four years and nine months. Today we laid her to rest and tell her story. 

This is Mr. Black (we're very creative with names), he is a French Black Copper Marans chicken. This particular breed is rare in the U.S. and their eggs are the darkest, chocolate brown. It is also said that their eggs are the favorite eggs of James Bond. Fancy, huh?! Well, My dear sweet cousin brought me Mr. Black and his mate Petals.

 This is Petals. Mr. Black and Petals are Willies parents. The arrangement was to foster these two and give my dear sweet cousin a batch of their off-spring. As we did. I confess that I didn't know what special bird we had when she brought them to us and we simply followed instructions. After having them in our flock we learned more about them and realized we wanted some more!

After collecting 14 eggs from Mr. Black and Petals, we incubated them for 21 days. Only 3 hatched and of those 3, only Willie lived. This is Willie. We named her after the volley ball from the movie Castaway. Not realizing he was a she.

Since Willie was an only child we let her live in the house. Why you ask? Well, you can't put a baby chick in with the other hens or they will peck it to death establishing dominance. 

Willie soon became our very dear pet.

Even the cat liked Willie.

I remember when we put Willie out to live with the flock, she was very confused and looked at us like we'd made a mistake... she lived in the house with US... not these pterodactyl looking things! She soon learned she was the favorite hen and out ranked Mrs. B. (another legend to be discussed later). 

Willie lived most of her life as the flock queen even when Mr. Black died and we replaced him with El Guapo and then Gustov.

She did, however, have a very adventurous brush with death at only a year old. One day Farm Boy was outside building on "yet another outbuilding" and noticed it was quiet. The chickens are NEVER quiet and if they are... something is amiss. He looked around and saw a hawk looming over Willie, who was legs up near the hen house. With a quiver full of tools on his belt he grabbed the tape measure and flung it across the yard at the hawk. Ya, he hit it and bonked it on its head. Hoping the hawk would right itself and fly away.... it didn't... it righted itself and hissed at Farm Boy, guarding it's meal.

Farm Boy didn't know what to do! He didn't want to harm the hawk, as we allow nature to live around us and honor that they exist in harmony with our farm animals. So, he approached the hawk and tried to scoot it away with his boot... really, he didn't kick it, he just wanted it to leave Willie alone. It was persistent and the only option to save Willie was to cancel the hawk.

Farm Boy gave the hawk time to leave by going to the shop and retrieving the hammer... don't ask. When he returned the hawk was still there. Fearing no there options... well, the hawk moved on to the other side with some assistance from the hammer.

[special note: killing birds of prey is illegal, unless your livestock is in danger]

Farm Boy yelled in distress at the house, there were some bad words but the message was, "Git out here!" I came out to find Farm Boy with a hawk in one hand and a hammer in the other... not knowing what had just taken place.

So... what would you think seeing your husband holding a hawk and a hammer? Seriously, I was thinking, "Damn, I really did marry a STUD!" Any man skilled enough to thwack a hawk out of the air with a hammer is like... SUPERMAN!

He told me the whole story and... well, he really is Super Man in a different way.

Both of us thought Willie was a goner, Farm Boy reached out for her and all of a sudden, in a burst of flurry, she righted herself and squawked off in a huff. WILLIE!!! She was alive and well and her faking dead worked.

Willie has a daughter raised by Ninja Chicken.... so Willamina is a bit nuts-a-burgers but, still a French Black Copper Marans.

R.I.P. Willie, you had a great life!