Tonight I have chosen to draw Diabolo’s portrait, he’s finally up and running after this afternoon’s incident which nearly cost him his life…

I honestly didn’t think he would recover because he wasn’t moving at all. I had a great surprise when I got back inside and saw him standing is his little box, trying to jump out (still at bit stressed out).

Sometimes destiny has beautiful moments to offer : seeing Diabolo walking and trying to get under Picorett’s belly when she recognized his chirping and answered back by calling him 🙂

Diabolo, orpington bantam chick

Diabolo comes from my first group of orpington bantams, his parents are :

• miss Maille, the barred hen
• One of the two roosters of the family : Ba-nania or his son Nesquick, both chocolate

He’s the brother of Envy, the injured chick. It’s as if a group of jealous hens were conspiring against these nice and gentle chicks !

When he grows up, Diabolo could be black (chocolate carrier), barred like his mom or even chocolate, we’ll just have to wait and see…

Diabolo’s mishaps

Diabolo was born in the house out of an incubator, on the 18th of august, he had no trouble coming out of his shell and hatched at the same time as his friend Domino (pekin chick). The next day I tried to place him for adoption under two young hens who had already raised a chick of their own (and who had also lost some chicks). One chick per hen, everything seems ok. But a few minutes later, walking past the chicken coop, I see Domino, alone in another chicken run, trying to catch up with me. I pick up the panicking chick, he looks fine and take him to the hens : no more chick ! Diabolo has disappeared.

My friends Romain and Amandine are with me and we are looking for Diabolo everywhere…No chirping, I start to imagine the worst…I find him stuck in the fencing wire left open to give access to new grown grass, suffocating…no wonder we couldn’t here him. Another last-minute rescue ! 🙂

I then gave Diabolo and Domino to Picorett’ who only had one chick and was glad to take them on, she’s a good mom who takes great care of her chicks.

Our Diabolo has survived two attacks in 10 days, that’s a lot for one tiny chick ! But he’ll be fine if he’s as tough as his little brother Envy 🙂

Diabolo on video

A few hours after the attack, Diabolo recovers slowly and spends some time in the brooder with Envy and his friends before getting back to his mother in the evening 🙂

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We’ll be back soon with a new Chicken Family portrait 🙂

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