little bits of life.
garden
the good, the bad and the downright sad.
Today, this blog-it’s a little sad for me, a familiar feeling of grief tinged with a little bit of failure.
As a child growing up, I was fortunate enough to have parents who understood and supported my fascination with animals-we had cats, dogs, horses, fish and even the occasional flock of orphaned ducklings. At an early age, I was made well aware of the feelings of loss, grief and profound sadness associated with losing a pet. It varied with intensity-but regardless, big or small it was there.
As I have aged, I am still overcome with sadness when I lose a pet, and a deep sense of failure-as if I could have predicted the future and created a better outcome. As an adult, the grown rational side of you understands the loss and the “whys”, but your heart still feels overwhelming sadness.
Yesterday, I was reunited with these all too familiar feelings-in the most unsuspecting of places.
Our rooster, Nugget had wandered off of his many acre farm and was killed by the neighbors dog. He was raised with our dogs, who are completely trustworthy with the birds. When we relocated him to his new home (we aren’t able to house roosters in our neighborhood, due to the proximity of other homes and a roosters propensity for screaming in the wee hours of the morning), it was also home to 3 other trustworthy dogs-he wasn’t raised to have (what I now believe is a healthy) fear of dogs.
This is the first chicken I’ve lost, and I certainly did not think I would be as upset as I was. Darn, it hit me right in the feels. I truly believe you have a personal responsibility to all animals you choose to bring into your home and life, regardless of if they are pets or producers. I have responsibility in the end, and let this little guy down.
Looking forward, I don’t see that it will get any easier- but these things happen, especially when raising livestock. You do your best to protect and care for them-but inevitably these things happen.
There is so much care, time and love that goes into raising livestock and produce. You are hit with a bit of defeat every time a plant dies or doesn’t produce the way you think it should, all the time you spend tending to them seems wasted. Then, the next morning when you’re collecting dozens of eggs or canning pounds of tomatoes- it all feels great, and makes perfect sense and you’re filled with happiness. I cannot imagine the rollercoaster larger scale farmers ride, it makes me respect their process so much more.
See ya on the flip side Nugget-thanks for the lessons.
little bits of life.
Donald.
Kentucky fire.
Vogue.
Love.
So much KY.
This view never gets old.
Our first Greenie.
nugget gets gone.
When we purchased our chicks, we purchased them sexed as females. Sexing chickens can be really tough, so we weren’t too surprised when we ended up with one Roo. As he aged, he turned into a beautiful golden boy-but as he grew, so did his voice. It wasn’t too long before his vocal abilities were center stage-and he was singing the song of his people in the early morning light.
Living in a neighborhood, we knew that this wouldn’t work and we would have to relocate our dear friend Nugget. Luckily, I have a friend who owns a larger farm and a flock of her own, she was willing to take him in. Today we separated him from our girls, stuck him in the car and brought him to his new family.
Backyard chickens are becoming more and more popular as urban gardening takes off across the country. It’s important to remember, that if you’re going to be an owner of backyard chickens- you be a responsible one. One bad egg can ruin it for the whole group.
Noisy chickens and crowing roosters don’t make good neighbors (for some people). It’s important to remember that, although you may love waking up to that sweet rooster song-there are many people who do not. I recommend keeping your coop as far away from your neighbors as possible, keep it as clean as possible, and restrict your coop residents to hens. Sharing the fruits of your labor doesn’t hurt either- who can look at a farm fresh egg and not smile?
what comes first, the chicken or the coop?
I feel like I know the answer to this one now, it’s a solid “Coop“. But alas- in my chickenignorance, on a cold and snowy February day, a friend and I drove an hour to go pick up 13 (a cool-bakers dozen) mixed breed, week old chicks. I was fairly certain, that we could complete our semi-finished coop by the time the girls were going to need to be moved outside.
I was blissfully unaware at the rate of which chickens grew- and within a week, they were flying the coop (or brooder). In an attempt to contain them, that unfortunately failed, I split the brood into two separate brooders. I believe now, that this essentially gave them more room for a running start to leap out of their confinement, but hindsight is 20/20. I guess at some point, I should mention that the chicks were living in our spare bedroom, which made the room less inviting for guests.
When we finally decided that the girls had overstayed their upstairs welcome, we built a large and tall temporary brooder in our unfinished basement. This made all of us much happier, and as the girls continued to grow- I continued to drag my feet finishing the coop. Then the inevitable happened: they began escaping their new, larger brooder and chicken coop crunch time began.
The coop interior, door and run was completed within a couple of weeks without major incident, and we moved the girls outside.
My advice to anyone wanting to get chickens:
Do it! They really are so much fun, but plan ahead. I tend to like to do things a little bit spur of the moment, but with chickens that isn’t the best approach. Have your brooder, coop and run all set before you bring them home. More importantly, you have to understand your city and neighborhood laws before you begin the process. The startup is costly, and it would be a shame to go through it all-to then have your girls get the boot out of town! If you’re really set on having chickens and its not allowed in your neighborhood or city- get to work on educating the neighborhood committee and city council to get the laws changed. A simple google search will get you started in the right direction.
bluegrass backyard 