Misadventures of the Mack Family: Von

When we ordered our first batch of chickens, we got a free "rare specialty chick". This chick turned out to be a White Crested Polish Chicken, and Jack fell in love with it right off the bat. I named it Princess Von A-Hole because it was sort of a jerk from day one. The kids just called it Von.

Unfortunately, this chick turned out to be a boy which meant we couldn't keep it. He crowed one day, and Jack literally fell to his knees with despair. He was so sad, we cannot keep roosters in the city limits. While we had already discussed the other chickens eventual demise to become dinner, this chicken was "safe" from that because it was a small show chicken not intended for eating. Jack had himself a pet chicken. Well, up until it crowed. This is a sad story. I ended up finding Von a home with a friend of mine who keeps chickens. Jack could go visit Von whenever he wanted to, and it seemed like the best option at the time. And then, Von got killed by one of her bigger chickens. Oh my gosh people, I told you this story was sad.

So what do you think I did? Because guys, Jack was SAD. Not bouncing back from it kind of sad. It was awful.

So, I ordered Jack a female version of Von as a surprise.

Now is a good time to tell you that baby chicks are between 3-5 bucks a piece. I paid $80.00 for Von. Argh. The things we do for our kids. She was expensive because she was older, I had to buy her separately and typically there is a chick minimum for shipping. I had to pay to get around that. I also had to pay for specialty livestock shipping. So my grand total was ridiculous. I didn't care though. We had a scare at the post office. They "lost" the new chick in Dallas somewhere and she was a day late. Thank goodness she was still alive and healthy when she got here. The post office called me at 5 AM to let me know she made it safely after all, and I drove straight over to pick her up. I took her right upstairs, and put her on Jack's chest while he was sleeping. He woke up, took one look at her and started cyring.

He was so happy. It takes a lot to get any kind of happy emotions out of Jack, but there was no denying how happy he was. Not sure if you have noticed (how could you not), but most of Jack's smiles are forced and fake as can be.

He rarely smiles for real, and he definitely did that morning.

And here too. He decided he was going to keep the same name, so this is now Von also.

Something about these chickens though, they don't see well so they have a difficult time protecting themselves. And if you weren't aware, chickens are complete bitc***. No kidding.

One day, Jack came back from the coop in hysterics. One of the other chickens had scalped Von. Her entire scalp on the top of her head was gone. All those beautiful feathers, gone. Nothing but a bloody mess.

We quickly went to work fixing her up. Chickens are resilient. We coated her head with antiseptic that also keeps other chickens from pecking at the sore spot, and we hoped she would be ok. Justice quickly went to work determining which chicken attacked her, and he quickly spotted her because she had Von's blood all over her beak. Within five minutes, Justice took care of the attacker and had her in the freezer in less than an hour.

Quick photobomb by the head hen, haha.

So, what were we going to do now? Ugh. We couldn't put her back until she healed, so we put her in the brooder pen inside the big coop, temporarily. That would be ok until she healed, but couldn't be permanent because there is no outside access. Chickens need to be outside.

The slow realization hit The Coach that he was going to have to build Von her own chicken run attached to the brooder pen. We weren't sure she was ever going to be able to be around the other chickens without getting injured again.

The Coach was not pleased. But, being the good father and husband that he is, he built Von her own chicken run. We cut a pop-door out of the back of the coop so she could come outside.