The first thing I noticed was her comb, it was like a Queen’s crown, so I named her “Queen Victoria”. She mostly gets called “Queen Vic” or “Queenie”. She has always had a look of determination on her face, even when she first came out of her cage completely terrified, she still had her fierce determined look. She was rescued in January, 2013.
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Queen Vic lived in a huge shed in a tiny cage with 5 other chickens for 18 months. At the end of this 18 months egg layers are deemed useless and are always slaughtered. This particular cage egg farm had a cafe attached to it and this particular farmer chose to sell these hens to the public at the end of their commercial egg laying life for $5 each. These girls are described as being “for the pot”. These girls are moved from the huge shed to a smaller room next to the cafe. All the blinds are down in this room so that the public cannot see that they are crammed into tiny cages awaiting someone to come along and pay $5 for them. No money changed hands when Queen Vic and her friends left that room. No one paid money for her or her friends because animals aren’t property to be bought and sold. Animals have their own intrinsic value.
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Queen Vic came to Lefty’s Place and learnt how to forage in the earth, how to dustbathe, how to flap her wings and she became who she was born to be. She doesn’t follow anyone this girl, she is one hundred percent her own hen…not even Super Chicken interests her greatly! I’ll see her wandering around alone having a grand old time whilst the rest of the flock runs after Super Chicken.
She is earnest, determined, wilful, stubborn, independent, individual and completely brilliant. That’s Queen Victoria.
Please don’t use my images without permission. All images are Copyright Tamara Kenneally