Isabella Monge-Grassi has her work cut out for her, tending more than 70 rescue chooks and selling the eggs to help fund her far-off dream of becoming a vet.
The 11-year-old from Pigeon Valley is following that avian theme in partnership with her mother, Louise, and she is already acquiring a wealth of experience for her proposed career. Amid the everyday ups and downs of farming livestock, she has successfully treated an egg-bound hen, tended a chick dropped by a hawk and nursed one that went through surgery after a dog attack. But it’s the personalities and behaviour of her flock that is teaching her the most.
Isabella and her mother have been taking a couple of batches of rescue chooks every year for the past three years. The birds come from poultry farms around Canterbury and are picked up by The Chicken Man when they are about 18 months old and dropping off egg production. He then finds homes for them, and Isabella and Louise are now regulars on his list.
It can be challenging introducing new birds to a flock, but Louise says they pop the new arrivals into the pen at feeding time “before the other fat turkeys realise there’s newbies among them”.
Now the latest batch are quite at home, scratching in the soil with the growing flock, where standout personalities and attributes have earned names. There’s Orphelia, who once fell asleep in Isabella’s arms, Tenzing, who is a climber and then Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee who gained their names because they like to bide their time sitting in nesting boxes when there’s no eggs.
“Orphelia was egg bound, and I put her in a container with warm water which softens their skin, so the egg pops out. I was doing everything I could because I was terrified for her. Then she snuggled up for about two hours in the sun and I thought she was dead until I heard her walking around looking for lunch.
“They’re incredibly curious. I’ve got a cool photo of Dorothy poking her head into the lens of the camera.”
Isabella says some are like family. Especially Tenzing, who “doesn’t think she’s a chook and thinks she’s a much higher level”.
Every week, Isabella and Louise pick up food scraps from regular contributors in the community to help feed the chooks and Louise says the venture wouldn’t make money if the chooks were fed solely on grain. Isabella gets about 25 to 30 eggs from the chooks each day and while most of her savings is tagged for studying to become a vet – a career she has had her heart set on since she was five - she will use some of the money on dancing costs.
Last year she went to the New Zealand School of Dance where she took part in different dance genres and not just her favourites, ballet and contemporary.
Louise says they are always looking for more household scraps to pick up within the Wakefield-Brightwater area. She can be contacted on 0278196106.
