LeeLee’s Story – (Mystery Photo Friday Answer)

The answer to Mystery Photo Friday – it’s a rooster comb! 😀 Meet LeeLee, the beautiful boy who stayed still long enough for me to get a good shot of his rose comb.

I originally named him Leeli, from The Wingfeather Saga books (because the character used a crutch to get around, and LeeLee had foot problems and couldn’t stand for a while after he hatched), but he ended up being a rooster, so I changed it to LeeLee.

His toes were curled when he hatched, and we aren’t sure why this happened. Two chicks ended up with curled toes (both have full use of their feet now).

You can see in the photo of young LeeLee how bad his feet were. Within a couple of days, he managed to learn to walk.

Within a couple of weeks, his toes straightened out a bit.

After that, when they started flying around, I put a stick in the cage for him to practice perching on. Then when he outgrew the small stick, we upgraded to a mop handle. He would fly up, and grip with one foot and not the other, and sail right off and land in the pine chips, poor guy. Often he took the other chicks with him and there would be lots of squawking. But as you can see, he turned into a beautiful rooster and he can stand just fine! Here, I caught him in mid-step. 🙂

After a while, he was able to grip it, and now he can grip the roosting bar and the little perch I have up for them outside with no problem! (He’s the white rooster on the perch – Jules Verne and Patriot are the two on the ground having a bit of a disagreement through the wire. )

Also, say hello to the beautiful hens! Avi, Siren, Guinevere, and Banshee are the hens most visible in this shot.

Hope you’re all having a good week. 🙂