Thor Was A Mighty Chicken

Category: Chickens | Posted: Mon May 19, 2014 9:53 am

I spent the better part of this past weekend working on a new chicken pen for the 12 additions to the flock. My next project is a fence for the garden. It hasn't been too bad with only five chickens, but I don't even want to see what kind of havoc seventeen chickens could wreak on a garden.

So, a little explanation about the title of this blog entry is in order. Working on the new pen got me thinking about one of my favorite chickens (there's something that I never thought I'd find myself saying). You see, I never claimed to be much of an animal lover. In fact, I can say with certainty that I am not an animal lover. However, a couple of years ago I got extremely attached to, of all things, a chicken.

On a whim my wife and I decided to get some chickens so that we could have our own fresh eggs. We found someone close to our house that had young chickens for sale and we picked out five.

I never did figure out what breed two of the hens were, but the other three chickens turned out to be Golden Buff Orpingtons. Two were hens, but the one that I really liked was the rooster which I affectionately named "Thor" because of his striking color and large size.

He would run to me when I went into the field (I let them free range, only locking them up at night for protection's sake) and he was always gentle. He took care of his women too. I would search for crickets and drop them in front of him. He would start clucking and before long the hens would run over and gobble them up. I used to think he was wimpy for letting them steal his food, then I realized that he was actually calling them over. What a gentleman.

Unfortunately, Thor and his two Orpington brides were all killed by my brother's dog on the same day. I was devastated when I found them. I will admit that I actually came to tears. Of course, the other two chickens that I didn't really care for walked away scratch free.

We've had other chickens since then, but none quite like Thor. I still can't believe a chicken could have such an impact on me.

The picture below is not Thor, but I wanted to show what he looked like.

All hail Thor, the mighty chicken.

Thor ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )

Last edited: Mon Aug 18, 2014 7:18 pm

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