By Tania Phillips
While most chooks are content to hang out in a chicken coop and scratch the dirt, one Allora fowl has much wider ambitions.
The aptly named Chicken loves nothing more than taking to the open road with her humans Wendy and Dave, who just happen to photograph her exploits.
Wendy’s resulting Facebook page now has followers across the country checking out the latest Chicken adventures. Not bad for a bantam who was originally bought for a friend and never supposed to be part of the family.
“There are two stories mine and Dave’s,” Wendy explained.
“I go to a lot of ag shows or have been until recently, I was at an Ag show and I was in the chook pavilion there and there was a pen of chooks for sale. What stood out was her, her head was sticking out and she was asleep. I saw one of the chooks peck her, she looked sad, I felt sad and I had to do something about that.
“We weren’t set up, didn’t want chooks or anything to do with chooks but I had a friend who had them and I thought well, I’ll get this chook for my friend. I’ll save her and my friend gets a free chook.”
A few days after Chicken came home, they had planned a business trip to Canberra with the idea of dropping the young chook off in Northern NSW.
“That was her first trip,” Wendy said.
“We got her home and we had to call her something because we were going to have her for a week or so, the show was early in February and the trip to Canberra was on Valentines Day. So, we called her Chicken because that’s what she was and we didn’t want to get too attached to her – they say as soon as you name something you always keep it but that’s not always the case. We had to call her something.”
However, Dave tells it slightly differently – something Wendy only discovered in another of the many recent interviews their famous Chicken has attracted.
“I was at home and Wendy came back from the show and she was carrying a small chook and it just had this look on it’s face, very human-like, it looked like it needed a home or something. It was an irresistible look, I’ve never seen it on an animal before let alone a chook. I just said I think we should keep her,” Dave said.
It was a relief to Wendy who had fallen in love with their feathered friend. They now have a family of chooks, nine boys and Chicken and her daughter Crumpet though while Crumpet is content to be a normal chicken her mother prefers life on the road and the company of humans.
“After our Canberra trip, we realised she just enjoyed travelling,” Wendy said meaning suddenly the duo found themselves with a chicken tow on any trip be it out of the state or to the shops.
“She is with us 24 seven now – where we go she goes. At the start I use to spam family and friends with all these photos, I think they got sick of it, well not sick of it but they said you should start a Facebook page because we’re enjoying this and she’s making us happy. It would do the same for others.
“It took six months to pluck up the courage to start the page. Because I enjoy photography, I was taking a lot of photos anyway but it slowly evolved from a couple of photos with chicken to now only a couple without her. I actually find it hard to take a photo without chicken now,” she laughed.
It seems a lot of people love photos of Chicken with her Facebook page closing in on5,000 members while she has a further 1,100 Instagram fans.
“The site is to make people happy,” Wendy said.
“And because this happened at the same time as Covid was around, it was an outlet for people who maybe couldn’t see or do anything. They could see what Chicken got up to or what she saw. It does make people happy.
“She’s got a great personality, the more time you spend with her the more it comes out, she’s different to all the other chooks, especially the ones I’ve had in my life.
“She’s just a beautiful little thing.”
