Two years in the past after I moved to Kosovo, the primary factor I wished to do was elevate chickens. I love them and have wished them since I used to be a baby. So I knew that I’d get some after transferring to my husband’s homeland.
At some point in April 2022 my husband got here dwelling with 4 hens and a rooster. I used to be delighted.
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It took a couple of week to get our first egg. The enjoyment was incomparable. I knew in the event that they had been laying eggs, they had been wholesome and proud of us.
In July, two of my hens wouldn’t come out of the coop. They had been sitting on the ground within the nook. I used to be apprehensive they had been sick. I checked them out to see if I may decide an issue. Beneath had been eggs; that they had determined that they wished to be mothers.
My concern was rapidly changed with pleasure as I noticed we might be having infants.
Is there something cuter than a child rooster? I don’t assume so.
I calculated the day that they need to hatch and waited patiently. It takes 28 days for a rooster egg to hatch.
Picture by creator | Lacie (left) and Liza, sitting on their eggs
The suspense was killing me — worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster.
The day lastly arrived that the eggs ought to begin hatching. I nearly didn’t discover as a result of I used to be sick with the flu however when my cellphone notified me, nothing may cease me from dragging myself out to the coop in my pajamas to see if any chicks had hatched.
There I discovered an issue. One egg had began hatching however the chick acquired caught.
Because the chick struggled, the interior membrane had dried, trapping the chick. It may breathe, but it surely was already attracting ants. If it didn’t get out, it might die.
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The chick’s mom had pushed the poor little struggling chick out of the nest. Nature is merciless and rooster mothers don’t have any sympathy. A chick has to have the ability to get out of the shell by itself or the mother rejects it.
I discovered it simply in time. All ideas of my very own ailment went out of my thoughts. I had examine the issue and knew what to do.
Rigorously and slowly I peeled off the shell. Fortunately it got here off simple. The chick had been utterly separated from it and had totally absorbed the egg yolk.
I used to be in a position to get the little chick free! I attempted to place it again beneath the broody hens, however they weren’t having it. They pecked on the little factor, rejecting it. I knew what the little factor wanted.
I took it inside, wrapped it up, and mothered it myself.
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For 2 and a half months that little chick was my fixed companion. And I imply fixed. A chick usually spends 24/7 with its mother. If mother goes too distant, the chick will begin to make a variety of noise till mother is shut once more.
Picture by creator | A couple of hours after Zoë the chick was born
At first, she slept in just a little field by my mattress the place I gave her a heating pad to remain heat similar to she was sleeping beneath a hen. Chicks want to remain heat or they’ll die.
When she was older, she insisted on sleeping with me, screeching if I put her within the field. I gave her just a little basket lined with mushy rags to sleep in. It sat on my pillow, subsequent to my head. I can’t say I slept effectively, but it surely was one thing.
When birds hatch from the egg, they “imprint” on the primary dwelling factor that they see. Often, it’ their mother. Generally it is another person. The chick doesn’t care. They are going to comply with that particular person in every single place and consider it’s MOM.
I used to be mother.
After about two weeks I lastly felt like I may go away Zoë for a short while. After we would go away the home, we might put her in a small canine service with meals, water, and a mushy place to sleep.
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As Zoë grew, she grew to become part of our on a regular basis lives. She beloved to beg my husband for a few of his breakfast. She discovered to perch by sitting on our toes.
Each day, I’d take her out into the yard so she may see the opposite chickens they usually may see her. I prayed that ultimately, she would develop as much as be a standard rooster.
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It is laborious to inform the intercourse of a chick simply by them. It’s important to wait till they develop up. Nonetheless, that doesn’t cease individuals from guessing. Most thought she was going to be a boy, however I felt from the primary day she was a woman. I gave her the identify my youthful self had at all times wished to present a daughter: Zoë.
Picture by creator | Zoë at about one-month-old
Zoë may be very near the Albanian (the language we converse right here in Kosovo) phrase zog. A zog is a chick. So as an alternative of calling her by her identify, my husband rapidly nicknamed her Zoggie.
Earlier than I knew it, Zoë (aka Zoggie) was spending all day outdoors by herself amongst our different chickens. However each evening she would come inside the home to sleep.
And that was the way in which it was for a number of weeks. Till one evening my husband and I had been going to exit for the night. The solar was setting and all the opposite chickens had gone into the coop, as regular. Zoë waited patiently for me to carry her inside and put her in her cage.
As an alternative, my husband mentioned, “Sufficient is sufficient. She is sufficiently old to sleep with everybody else.” He scooped her up and put her within the coop and locked the door.
Picture by creator | Zoë at about six weeks outdated
I used to be terrified. I knew that chickens could possibly be horrible to one another. Particularly to a lone newcomer. I used to be certain she can be pecked to dying.
For a lot of the evening I listened intently in case I heard any sounds of assault coming from the coop. I barely slept. I wished a lot to exit and get her! However I knew that if this labored, it might be higher for her. She wanted to be a rooster with different chickens.
I acquired up additional early so the opposite chickens wouldn’t get up and homicide her earlier than I acquired there. However after I let everybody out, she was fantastic. From that day, she grew to become a member of the flock and by no means slept inside the home once more.
That didn’t imply she by no means got here inside it although. If we left the door open, she would saunter on in on the lookout for me. She at all times acquired a deal with, some loving, after which a mild elevate out the kitchen window and again into the yard.
We lastly knew for certain that she was a woman once we noticed her “make mates” with our rooster. I do know it is bizarre, however can I say that I used to be proud? She had grow to be a standard grownup hen and had been accepted by the group. It was every part I had hoped for.
Quickly she began to put eggs. Each day, she would place herself within the nook of our entrance door and lay her egg. I at all times felt it was her private present to me. She was the one rooster to ever lay there.
Picture by creator | Zoë laying an egg at about eight months
She grew massive and robust. She wasn’t our largest hen. However she was my favourite.
At any time when she noticed me or heard my voice, she would come operating. If she heard the kitchen window open, she’d be the primary to return operating to see me and get a deal with.
We might sit outdoors collectively whereas she would climb on me and peck on the flowers on my costume. She was at all times confused after I got here dwelling and was sporting my hijab. She would attempt to pull it off my head. Since I don’t put on it round the home, she wasn’t used to it. And he or she by no means as soon as pooped on me after she grew out of being a child.
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One pretty Spring morning I went outdoors to feed everybody. The solar was shining brightly. I sat for a minute and loved the morning air with a mug of espresso in hand. I waited for everybody — Zoë usually on the entrance — to return operating to me, begging for meals.
Each day was the identical. They acted like I by no means fed them.
However on this morning, nobody got here.
I’m not a morning individual. I usually rise up early, as you need to with chickens. However it takes me time to get totally acutely aware and alert. So for a second, I sat and it didn’t hit me that nobody was coming like regular.
Throughout the yard, I noticed some magpies sitting on one thing. I didn’t have my glasses on and couldn’t see clearly. It was odd. I had by no means seen magpies within the yard earlier than. And what had been they sitting on? And the place was all people?
The vacancy of the yard hit me. The place had been all my chickens!?
With rising alarm, I set down my mug and went to see what the magpies had been keen on. The magpies flew away as I neared, upset that I had disturbed them.
On the bottom, on her again, was Zoë.
But, it wasn’t Zoë anymore. It wasn’t the candy rooster that I had raised from the primary second of her delivery. It wasn’t the loopy little hen whose life I had saved and who had introduced such pleasure to mine.
As an alternative, it was a carcass. No head. No insides. The ribs had been gone and she or he was hollowed out like a jack o’lantern. Flies buzzed round her physique. The physique that I had so lovingly taken care of. In a futile try to guard her, I swatted them away. It was horrific.
My treasured little present was gone.
In shock, I regarded round to search out the others. The remaining chickens had been all hiding behind the home. We misplaced three hens that morning. Zoë, Lacie, and Masie. However dropping Zoë was the toughest.
The morning I misplaced her and the opposite hens was the toughest lesson I’ve had as a rooster keeper. As I mentioned, I’m not a morning individual. My husband and I had stopped locking the coop door at evening a number of months prior. We might shut it so the birds would keep heat, however within the morning our geese would push open the door and let themselves out each time they wished. Which was usually very early — too early.
We did this as a result of the geese would quack so loud at round 4 a.m. that they might wake us up inside with the home windows closed. This fashion they might let themselves out and we might get to sleep a number of extra hours.
Our yard is surrounded by an eight-foot-tall wall made from thick clay blocks. The place we dwell in Europe, we don’t have climbing predators akin to raccoons or opossums. The wall retains out all the remainder akin to canine and foxes. I believed the wall saved the flock secure. I used to be flawed.
We decided later {that a} fox had used our automotive, which was parked subsequent to the skin of the wall, to leap up and into the yard. It then used the wooden pile to get again out.
The fox had been so hungry, it ate Zoë immediately. Lacie and Maisey disappeared. No stays had been ever discovered.
My husband discovered from his cousin that the fox lived close by within the woods and had kits. It had been killing chickens throughout city.
I hate the fox. However I additionally perceive desirous to feed and care on your younger. I simply want she hadn’t eaten my younger.
I additionally felt like a failure. It was my job to maintain Zoë and the remainder of the chickens secure. I believed the wall did that. I by no means thought of how good and decided a hungry mom fox could possibly be.
We discovered by no means to park the automotive subsequent to the wall at evening anymore. And now we at all times lock up the birds in order that they don’t exit too early within the morning. Daybreak is the fox’s favourite searching time.
We buried Zoë beneath a cherry tree. The identical day, a rose that had by no means bloomed for me, bloomed a big, single pink blossom. In Might. It was early. Now I consider it as Zoë’s rosebush.
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For weeks I cried simply from the point out or considered her. I attempted to cover it.
To most, she was only a rooster. To me, she was a lot extra. My husband understood. Making an attempt to make me really feel higher, he provided to go purchase me one other chick the identical day. I mentioned no. I wanted time.
Zoë appeared like a present that was given to me. I chided myself after I thought of taking an egg for myself when Liza hatched extra chicks this yr. It felt like stealing.
Even when I do elevate one other, Zoë can’t be changed. She was a lightweight in my life after I desperately wanted it. I had moved to a overseas nation the place I didn’t converse the language, had began menopause, and most of my household and mates had been distant.
Zoë was my good friend. She was my household.
Picture and portray by creator | Portray of Zoë
In Albanian, they’ve a separate phrase for when a hen (usually referred to as a pulë) turns into a mom. It’s kovaçka. Hens undergo psychological and organic adjustments after they grow to be broody and are elevating chicks. Science has lately confirmed that human moms do as effectively. Our our bodies change so we are able to develop and lift little lives.
I used to be by no means in a position to have a baby of my very own. I misplaced that potential resulting from an sickness after I was youthful. Not with the ability to bear a baby has been the only, biggest unhappiness of my life. However even when I’ll by no means be a mom, Zoë made me a kovaçka. She’s going to at all times be remembered as my treasured Zoggie, a feathery little gentle in a darkish time of my life. I miss her daily.
Picture by creator | The final image I took of Zoë on Might 23, 2023
HF Sylaj is an American author who moved to her husband’s homeland in rural Europe the place she retains a flock of chickens and tries to study the native language. She writes repeatedly on Medium in addition to the Fb web page “This Albanian Life.”
This text was initially revealed at Medium. Reprinted with permission from the creator.
