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Now I want to run out and take some chicken pictures too! Yesterday was my first town day since mid March, it went well. With our adjusted ferry schedules, DH’s bloodwork, prescription pick up, stitches getting removed, FIL’s bloodwork, prescription pick up (at a different pharmacy of course!) , feed run, and our monthly grocery shop to do it was a divide a conquer trip for sure. This shop is out of coffee, that shop is out of filters, kale is too expensive at Walmart, and the warehouse club is out of peppers and milk... so on and so on...
it was a 3am start here, just to get the chickens all settled for the day, at the ferry for 5:45 and we didn’t hit the big island until 10am! BIL handled switching my batteries for the chicks heat plate, but didn’t get the batteries back on the charger in time, so it took all 4 to get me through the night. And when I got home I found the Ancient, rescued Barred Rock passed on in the barn. I had been calling her “old Lady”, and separated her out fully two days ago. I had just been helping her down in the mornings, keeping her rooster from jumping on her first thing in the morning, and making sure she got started well every day. The day I pulled her out from her flock was during the moving of the tractor, when the younger girls ran over her, knocking her down in their excitement for fresh grass. Then they started aggressively pecking her while she was struggling to rise. She had been free ranging ever since around the trailer during the day, and getting tucked in at night to the crate in the barn for owl protection. I’m sorry that it happened on the day I had to leave her in the barn, and I wish she had been able to pass on in thick grass and sunshine, but at least she finally got to enjoy it this spring.
It breaks my heart losing the rescues, even when I know it’s their time. I’m just glad I got a chance to give them a good life on pasture for a bit. Another of Chickiehawks ladies seems to be on her way out as well. Not ascites, but the solid large abdomen and standing like a penguin. It really frustrates me that they have been so highly bred solely for our convenience and egg production, with no thought at all to the welfare of the animal.
it was a 3am start here, just to get the chickens all settled for the day, at the ferry for 5:45 and we didn’t hit the big island until 10am! BIL handled switching my batteries for the chicks heat plate, but didn’t get the batteries back on the charger in time, so it took all 4 to get me through the night. And when I got home I found the Ancient, rescued Barred Rock passed on in the barn. I had been calling her “old Lady”, and separated her out fully two days ago. I had just been helping her down in the mornings, keeping her rooster from jumping on her first thing in the morning, and making sure she got started well every day. The day I pulled her out from her flock was during the moving of the tractor, when the younger girls ran over her, knocking her down in their excitement for fresh grass. Then they started aggressively pecking her while she was struggling to rise. She had been free ranging ever since around the trailer during the day, and getting tucked in at night to the crate in the barn for owl protection. I’m sorry that it happened on the day I had to leave her in the barn, and I wish she had been able to pass on in thick grass and sunshine, but at least she finally got to enjoy it this spring.
It breaks my heart losing the rescues, even when I know it’s their time. I’m just glad I got a chance to give them a good life on pasture for a bit. Another of Chickiehawks ladies seems to be on her way out as well. Not ascites, but the solid large abdomen and standing like a penguin. It really frustrates me that they have been so highly bred solely for our convenience and egg production, with no thought at all to the welfare of the animal.
So hard... 
