It’s with a broken heart that we had to say goodbye to Larry the chicken.
While we strive to not allow breeding at Barn Sanctuary, we did find ourselves with an “Oops!” baby last year. Sammie the hen had been in her nest quite often over a period of time, and her caretakers thought the egg she was protecting was a different one each time being pulled by another team member. Once our error was realized, the egg was checked, and sure enough, there was clear evidence of a chick inside.
Just two days later, a tiny head popped out from underneath her protective feathers. Because this baby looked a lot like mom (a naked neck breed) with a shock of black “hair” on the head and a “scarf” of feathers around the neck, we gave the name Liza after Liza Minelli. It wasn’t too long before Liza proved to not be a girl (there was no mistaking that crow!), so Liza became Larry.
Larry, unlike many of the residents at Barn, never knew poor nutrition, neglect, abuse or really anything but love and affection from humans. He quickly proved himself to prefer the company of humans, often jumping on our shoulders and happily tagging along there to cross the property, crowing to all we walked by on our journey. Larry was a joy to be around and eagerly greeted anyone passing by his yard.
While his departure from us was a shock and certainly difficult to reason with, especially due to his young age, we are so grateful to have known this lively and precious soul.
