Hi all! I am a long time member of BYC since early 2012. I got locked out of my first account because for the life of me I could not remember the user name and password LOL!
But anyway, life has been crazy with me starting college, trying to care for my grand and great grandparents plus caring for my chickens I never really had time to be on here much. Things have settled down now though, unfortunately that is because my great grandfather who suffered a major stroke in 2002, passed away earlier this year. His death was pretty much expected when it happened but non the less it was very hard to loose him. His wife, my great grandmother is finally doing much better mentally and physically, she is 91 and still drives herself to the PO and local grocery store!
A bit in my chicken world has changed since the last time I was on here. My two pet chickens Lucy and Ethel both passed away. Ethel was killed by a hawk one morning when the latch to their pen came undone, I was gone that morning and came back only to find a small pool of blood and some tiny feathers from her tiny 18 oz. body. I had never cried so much over a death of my chickens as I did her. A few months later Lucy died from natural causes, she had major neurological issues, which caused her neck to spaz out, when she had one of her episodes her head would reach as far back as possible, up-side down, her beak nearly touching her tail. The only thing that would get her through those spasms was me holding her tightly, petting and singing to her. Her body went through so many changes during her last few months of life. Her body did not absorb her nutrients like she needed so she would go through spells of being very skinny. Finally after 4 years of fighting to live her body gave up and she passed away during the night. I will always miss my baby girls, but I am thankful to have an egg from Ethel and an egg and some feathers from Lucy to remember them by.
In happier news, my Heritage English Orpingtons keep getting bigger, fluffier and more beautiful with each generation that I breed them! I am now focused only on them, I don't have any pet chickens anymore, I just have my breeders of which I try not to get too attached because I know that I may have to take them out of my breeding programs if I see any faults. I very much enjoy breeding these beauties but it can be hard sometimes to re-home your favorite chicken just because it has a wrong colored feather or too large of a comb or wattles. But that is what it takes when you are breeding a certain breed of poultry for the betterment of the breed. Thankfully now that I have nice birds to use in my breeding programs there are not many chicks that are hatched that do not meet the standards, so I don't have to re-home many!
Life is pretty good right now at Lots 'A' Cluckin' Farm for both human and animal kinds!
So what's new with you? What's new with BYC?
Lucy
Ethel
Ethel's Egg Lucy's Egg and Feathers
Blue Heritage Orpington
Splash Heritage Orpington
Black Heritage Orpington
Blue, Splash and Black Heritage Orpingtons
But anyway, life has been crazy with me starting college, trying to care for my grand and great grandparents plus caring for my chickens I never really had time to be on here much. Things have settled down now though, unfortunately that is because my great grandfather who suffered a major stroke in 2002, passed away earlier this year. His death was pretty much expected when it happened but non the less it was very hard to loose him. His wife, my great grandmother is finally doing much better mentally and physically, she is 91 and still drives herself to the PO and local grocery store!
A bit in my chicken world has changed since the last time I was on here. My two pet chickens Lucy and Ethel both passed away. Ethel was killed by a hawk one morning when the latch to their pen came undone, I was gone that morning and came back only to find a small pool of blood and some tiny feathers from her tiny 18 oz. body. I had never cried so much over a death of my chickens as I did her. A few months later Lucy died from natural causes, she had major neurological issues, which caused her neck to spaz out, when she had one of her episodes her head would reach as far back as possible, up-side down, her beak nearly touching her tail. The only thing that would get her through those spasms was me holding her tightly, petting and singing to her. Her body went through so many changes during her last few months of life. Her body did not absorb her nutrients like she needed so she would go through spells of being very skinny. Finally after 4 years of fighting to live her body gave up and she passed away during the night. I will always miss my baby girls, but I am thankful to have an egg from Ethel and an egg and some feathers from Lucy to remember them by.
In happier news, my Heritage English Orpingtons keep getting bigger, fluffier and more beautiful with each generation that I breed them! I am now focused only on them, I don't have any pet chickens anymore, I just have my breeders of which I try not to get too attached because I know that I may have to take them out of my breeding programs if I see any faults. I very much enjoy breeding these beauties but it can be hard sometimes to re-home your favorite chicken just because it has a wrong colored feather or too large of a comb or wattles. But that is what it takes when you are breeding a certain breed of poultry for the betterment of the breed. Thankfully now that I have nice birds to use in my breeding programs there are not many chicks that are hatched that do not meet the standards, so I don't have to re-home many!
Life is pretty good right now at Lots 'A' Cluckin' Farm for both human and animal kinds!
So what's new with you? What's new with BYC?
Lucy
Ethel
Ethel's Egg Lucy's Egg and Feathers
Blue Heritage Orpington
Splash Heritage Orpington
Black Heritage Orpington
Blue, Splash and Black Heritage Orpingtons
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