Remembering a chicken called The Beak

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This discussion has been rewritten from a similar one published on Bubblews. Emmett (@Platespinner) has written about her hen and the chicks she has given it to rear. It reminded me of our neighbour of many years ago. Her bantams were always getting out. One made her nest in a hayshed among the bales of hay. One little hen hatched out eight chickens but one got tangled up in the long, wet grass and was in a bad way when I found it. I dropped it into a woolly sock, folded it over and placed it on a hot water bottle. When I shook it out a little later, I'd nearly cooked the poor little thing. It had come back to life but had its beak open, panting. I gave it a little water off the end of a teaspoon and settled it down again. It turned out to be a little hen which we called The Beak. In the evenings, she would sit in the crook of our ankle in front of the fire and go to sleep. She also liked to flap her way up onto our shoulder. I imagine this would be instinctive behaviour for a bantam as they like to roost high in the trees out of reach of foxes and dogs. My son had joined several rubber bands together and dragged it past The Beak. She must have thought it was the biggest worm she'd ever seen as she grabbed hold of it, dug her toes in and refused to let go. We could pick her up off the ground and swing her in circles but she wouldn’t give up her worm. Eventually we gave her to my mum and she raised several lots of chickens. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of The Beak but this photo is of a duck we saw in South Australia. Don’t you just love her hairdo?