We have a lame chicken. She has what they call a “failure to thrive.” She got her foot caught in the food trough when she was just four weeks old and from then on has just struggled. She became lame and the other chickens began to pick on her – as chickens will do. This is precisely where the term “pecking order” came from. She was at the bottom and was slowly starving to death when we realized she wasn’t going to make it on her own.

Our daughter couldn’t live with the idea that we would just continue to allow this pecking order to consume her, she also wouldn’t allow us to end the struggle of this poor chicken, who was now maybe 1/3 of the size of the other chickens. She set up a chicken infirmary in her room – a large Tupperware bin with bedding, food, water, and a lamp. She bathed this chicken, fed it, made sure it drank. Slowly it began to lift its head, eat and drink on its own, stand and walk around the tupperware. This chicken was doing her best to thrive, but having been injured and malnourished for as long as she was, she is likely not going to be like the other chickens. She put on weight and grew a little, but is still very small and doesn’t have much meat on her.

The chickens are all nearly 12 weeks old. And this chicken has been living in solitary confinement in my daughters room for a month. We decided it was time for her to go in with the flock, because we didn’t really get the chickens to be house pets. They aren’t really house pet kind of animals. And when we bought 12 chickens for our family of 9, there were a few spares. Why did we get spares? Because chickens die, things happen, they could have turned out to be roosters, and then there is the very real threat of predators….which we will always face…so we wanted to make sure there were some spares. We tried to let them know they would need to be tough and strong and might get a little heart broken if “their” chicken died, or if any of the chickens were not allowed to stay with us. We attempted to verbally prepare them for the worst.

You can’t make their hearts hard though, and would we really want to?

So, Gloria, yes that is the name of our lame chicken, went to live in the coop. She is small and hiding in the corner. We don’t think she will be great at fending for herself, but we have a small hope that she will just become less interesting to pick on as the days go on.

Our daughter was devastated to be told it was time to let Gloria go be a chicken. Even though she knew this day was coming, we have been preparing her for a while, she also knew her handicapped chickens chances were not great with those other large able bodied hens around. Gloria had not been her chicken to begin with, but she is the one who has saved her from certain death thus far. She is very invested. She relates to this chicken. Through sobs she told us she understood what it was like to be the small and timid chicken. She is very petite for her age, and often is mistaken for much younger. She said in fourth grade she had been relentlessly bullied by the other kids. I’m not sure that is entirely true, but it feels true to her right now. She is betraying Gloria, and losing her chicken friend, it’s a lot of emotion to process.

So we sat and prayed for a chicken…

Dear Lord, Thank you for our little girl’s kind heart. Please look after Gloria, the chicken. Keep her from being bullied and help her to grow strong. Please help her to not be in pain and for the best thing possible for her be what happens. May we have peace in that and be comforted by you in whatever may happen. Amen.