His name is Donald Trump.
He came to the farm about 3-4 years ago from the Pearson Auction, he was $25.
But he didn't always look like this. He was patterned in brown and black and very nervous around people. I didn't understand why we had to have this ugly little creature, but as they say, never judge a book by the cover.
After some time, Donald began to grow older but that wasn't the only thing changing. He began losing his feathers to the point that he was almost naked. All that was left was feather quills. At some point, the farmer posted on Facebook asking for help finding him a mate, maybe having a mate would help him to feel better, we thought.
People began berating us about his treatment and why he had no feathers. The little guy was in a pen by himself so it wasn't like he was getting bullied!
About three to four weeks later, we saw a glimmer of hope. A small red feather popped out of one of the quills. I thought, "What a strange little animal, he was brown and black and now he has red feathers growing back?" That's when it hit me, he had been going through a molt just like the chickens do! When his feathers came back fully, he kind of resembled Donald Trump in a way, so the name stuck. Donald Trump.
So in the midst of all that, we began moving animals around to accommodate their growing sizes. We had Svart Hona chickens in the enclosure that we had planned to put Donald in. We let the door stay open that night and they all spread out across the chicken yard, they were glad to be out, except for one hen.
When I went out the next morning to check on everyone a single hen sat in the enclosure. She refused to go out even with the door wide open. The farmer asked me what I wanted to do about her and we both agreed to just leave her and see how they got along. The time to put Donald in the enclose with "Jetta" had come and it went smoother than any of us could've imagined. We put Donald in the enclosure and shut the door, then we intently watched through the chicken wire.
Donald and Jetta circled each other, Donald hopped around her and stared her up and down while she turned and watched him checking her out.
It was the beginning of their love story.
To this day, they still won't leave each other's side. We've given Jetta many chances to leave out of the enclosure and go spend time with the other Svart Hona chickens, but she'd rather be with The Donald. It's just simply love.
-Lady of the Farm.
Comments