{our family addition}

February 26, 2011

It's true, Forrest and I are adding to our little family!  Exciting news, I know, but don't jump to any swift conclusions.  I'm sure this title sparks great interest, and I'm willing to bet the obvious assumption from most of you is that we're adding a new baby to our family...Well, you're right {sort of}!!!

We do have a new baby in the Beverly Family....A baby "CHICK", that is!!! :)
Here's the story about how "Bernie" became a Beverly...

It all began on December 10, 2010...It was an ordinary evening in the Beverly household {or so we thought}.  Forrest and I had just finished eating dinner, and we made our way to the couch to relax and watch a movie.  The doorbell rang not long after the movie started, and we both jumped up to chat with one of our neighbors who stopped by for a visit.  We were having a nice, pleasant conversation when, all of a sudden, this big, white bird started flapping and fluttering around in our Christmas wreath that was hanging on the front door.  I quickly slammed the door in our poor neighbor's face so this "bird" couldn't fly into the house, and we walked around to the side door to finish our conversation.  At this point, there wasn't much talking going on because we were all in shock and a bit stunned by this crazy creature that 1) was IN our wreath, 2) tried to attack us, and 3) almost flew into our house.  Forrest and I spent the next few minutes {still in shock} staring out the window at this bird that was now "nesting" on top of our beautiful Christmas wreath.
{bernie's nest}
The whole situation baffled us...Where in the world did this chicken come from, and how did he make his way to our wreath?  We thought "Maybe he wandered over from someone else's property"?  No way...We live in a large neighborhood in the city limits {far from any farms}, and there are no chickens to be found anywhere near our house.  We couldn't come up with a logical explanation, and we finally peeled ourselves from the window and decided to call it a night.  We closed the blinds, turned off the porch lights, and left Bernie {who was nameless at this point} asleep on the wreath.  We figured he {or she} would be long gone before the sun came up.

Well, we awoke bright and early to find this little chicken wandering around our front porch, just pecking away in the pine straw.  We were pretty surprised he was still there, but we thought for sure he'd be gone by the next day.  Wrong again!!
{exploring his territory}
Days turned into weeks, and we started getting used to having this chicken waddling around our yard during the day and sleeping on our wreath at night.  I actually became quite fond of the little furball {and I think Forrest did too :)}, and I was shocked when Christmas day rolled around and he was STILL with us.  On Christmas morning, I remember seeing a present under our tree to me from "Bernie"...When I asked Forrest who in the heck Bernie was, he nonchalantly replied, "Katherine, that's our chicken!"  Yep...Our chicken friend now had a name, and from that moment on, we knew that little Bernie was here to stay.
{bernie taking over the front porch}
Once I accepted the fact that Bernie would be a permanent staple at the Beverly household, I started doing some research on raising and caring for chickens.  Since I grew up with little pet dogs, this chicken business was new territory for me! :) After finishing all my online research, we have decided to build a little coop for Bernie, and we now make trips to the feed store rather than giving him scraps from our kitchen.  Our mornings are much more interesting these days, and I start each day tending to a chicken in addition to my black lab...I never thought I would say that!  Bernie seems happy and healthy, and I must admit that we do love our new pet.
{bernie's morning feeding}
It has almost been three months now since Bernie decided to make our wreath his home, and he's come a long way since that night...Bernie is now FAMOUS in our area, and he has become the topic of conversation throughout the state...He was on the front page of the newspaper, and the local news station recently contacted me about doing a story on him as well.  Who would have guessed that this mysterious chicken would generate such a buzz??

I'll continue to keep you updated on little Bernie, and I'll definitely let you know when he makes his TV debut!  If you're ever in the area, drop by the Beverly household for a visit...I'm sure Bernie will greet you at the door and give you a warm welcome! :)

Post a Comment

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to let you know...Bernie is a female, not a male :)

{southern bliss...sealed with a kiss} said...

We were thinking that may be the case, and thank you so much for confirming!! It looks like we need to make a name change from "Bernie" to "Bernice"! :)

Tripp Sherard said...

i love this story. In fact i was tellig my mom about it this weeked. we have a bird that comes to our house in Abbeville every year around November and the leaves aroud Febuary. It has bee comig for about five years. Ayways i hope you all are doig well and hope to see you soon. Don't know if youg uys know this but Haven and I are having a little girl at the end of the month or first of the year. Harper Anne Sherard is coming is coming into the world. Pretty scary stuff but very very excitig all at the same time. follow your blog and very impressed.