Everybody Needs A Friend

These girls are bonded because they both have the same problem. They have no feet. During the winter, for some reason, their feet froze solid. I should have put them down then, but didn't. I can only imagine the pain and suffering they have had to endure as the feet thawed then fell off at the ankle. One is a peg leg for sure and the other has some of her foot on one leg and nothing on the other. I am not sure why that happened either. If they perched on the two by four in the coop, any of the coops, and then laid their bellies over their feet to cover them, the feet should not have frozen. What must have happened, is that for some reason they slept on the ground one night. There is a lot of straw bedding in their coop, over a foot, but that is not adequate to keep their feet from freezing if they do not perch. 

So, as they convalesed, they became friends through a common problem. they stay together now, not going far from the coop. They do not lay eggs and cannot scratch the ground for bugs and worms. They eat the feed provided and try to hide from the roosters, but whatever they do and wherever they are, they are together. 

This photo was taken as they were getting ready to sleep and it was so endearing to see the blue hen cuddling her friend to keep her warm, even though it is a warm night. I am so sorry these girls had to suffer. They do not have much life now and they are rather thin, barely susisting really. That is no life for the beautiful Ameraucana hens and they will be killed as a mercy offering for them. Yet, I cannot help thinking that maybe they would rather cling to life, even though they are different than the other hens and cannot function as chickens anymore. Maybe, life is still preferable? 

Do you think so?