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Good to hear that she is still stable. I see you are still having battles with the broodies. I know I am. I went on a four day vacation and was happy to hear from the pet-sitter that my naked neck was done brooding... Not happy when I came home and found 3 out of my 5 hens decided to go broody in her place. Broodiness seems to be a battle that cannot be won... I'm glad you're keeping Crashie's name. I didn't even know you were considering changing it! Great story behind it. Glad you are keeping us posted. Best wishes with your future flock-ventures...
 
I'm glad you're keeping Crashie's name. I didn't even know you were considering changing it! Great story behind it.


Well, I really had no plans on changing it. :lol: Apparently, though, a lot of people thought I did, and I was pretty much telling everyone that mentioned it that her name was Crash, so I thought I would go into some detail here. :)



Crash and I had a stressful day, actually. I have less than 2 weeks until class starts and Crash is not getting accustomed to her outside pen as fast as I had hoped, so today, I tried tough love. I took her out first thing and put her in her pen, then went about my morning chores. It was hard to hear her cry, really hard. She wouldn't be consoled unless I was out there with her. So I held on as long as I could, which amounted to about 3 hours (just an hour or so longer than she's usually outside), and then I brought her in and gave her an apology bath. With kale, her favorite. :oops: I have no spine.

She got her revenge, however, by basically flying in circles in the water, wings flapping and legs flailing, essentially throwing huge amounts of water out in a shower over me while I sat by the tub. So... I guess we're even? :lol:



Today was very tiring as well. It's been a long and miserable summer, and I've noticed lately that the girls have been especially rough on one another. I feel like I should never have tried to give them a small free-range area. It was picked pretty clean within a week or two of being up. (Some backstory that I think is necessary here, not sure if it has been mentioned on this thread--I had a small, fenced area for them to 'free-range' in because I was concerned about the HPAI outbreak and didn't want them wandering anywhere that we may have carried in disease from off the property, mainly the driveway.) So today, they truly free-ranged for the first time this summer. They were so much happier, it gave them plenty of room and lots to peck at, and I was able to feel okay about it because I used the fence that was previously there to keep them out of the driveway, where we come and go and could possibly carry something with us. I feel better about this arrangement, anyway.

It all went smoothly until tonight, when I heard cackling off in the woods. The thing with fencing off the driveway is that the girls will wander around to the other side of it and can't find their way back home. So after finding my Egyptian Fayoumi, Marama, in a panic, I attempted to catch her and only succeeded in freaking her out more. My brother came out to help, and I eventually managed to grab her as he shooed her out of the brambles, but she wasn't done fighting yet.

She screamed. She screamed that scream that they use when they just know they're going to be killed. I tried to gain control of her as she flapped and kicked, received one heck of a bite from her on my arm, and finally tried to sooth her once I had her comfortably in my arms. After some gentle words, she settled into my arms with that same indignant look she always has when I hold her, calmed at last. I put her by the coop and she hurried off to get a drink, then returned to the coop, no longer concerned about my presence.

As I was counting her and the rest of the birds (all accounted for, thankfully), I noticed that Marama was standing kind of upright and had gone pale. It took me a bit to realize she was laying an egg! I moved her to a nest and watched as she dropped a shell-less egg right there. Apparently she had been so stressed that she gave up on tomorrow's egg and pushed it through without letting it sit in the shell gland overnight! Holy cow!


So... I'm ending today exhausted, covered in scratches from brambles and raspberry bushes, one small bruise on my arm where a certain Egyptian hen nabbed me, feet and fingers hurting from moving a fence, and with a few mosquito bites to boot! ...This is how my summer days should have been ending. :)




Since I'm here, I'll add just a few more flock news tidbits.

Frou-Frou is still holding stable. She has been opening her eyes a bit more the past couple days, but not for very long, and nothing else has changed from my last post. :/ Trying to stay optimistic, she has not gotten any worse this entire time, so I'm really hoping that with supportive care she will eventually shake this off...

Looks like Margaret is going broody again. SIGH. :rolleyes: And the war goes on.

And I miscounted the weeks for Emmy dear, so tomorrow I will be taking Reuben into quarantine as a first exposure bird to finish out her quarantine period. I thought tomorrow would be 3 weeks, but it's actually 4, so I'm only a week behind schedule. I have no reason to believe anything will go wrong at this point, so as long as nothing happens, a week from tomorrow Emmy should be starting integration into the flock. And we all know how fun that is.
 
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Wanted to stop in and keep y'all up to date on things. It's been hard, and I've gone back to crying a lot again. My Frou-Frou has begun spiraling downward and is just not looking well right now. If she can just wait a few days for it to get here in the mail, we have one last thing to try with the hope that it will at least help, but... I just know in my heart that her time left is limited. My baby, my precious Frou-Frou... I just don't have the words right now.
 
Oh dear... I don't know what to say... Please pull through, Frou-Frou!
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She's gone. Her crop stopped passing food today, and after a long conflict, we decided it was for the best that she was not made to suffer any longer. I have not cried so hard in my life. I've been thinking for days what I would post if this happened, and yet somehow... I'm without any idea of what to say now. I'm lost. My baby, my Big Fuzzy, my beloved Frou-Frou... What am I supposed to do without her?


Not that I have been posting much anyway, but I will probably not be active for a few days. It's just too painful to see her picture right now.
 
I just wanted to say thank you to both of you, and to anyone else who sent me messages if you happen to be reading here. It took me some time to be able to get online, and when I started logging in again, I found myself more emotional about the posts and messages about her than seeing her pictures again. Frou-Frou seemed to have left an impression on everyone that read about her, and I couldn't help but tear up every time I saw a message from someone that told me that they remembered her fondly, or that they felt they knew her through my posts, or that they would miss seeing her pictures and hearing about her antics. I think I'm finally past the crying now, though. (Nope, nevermind, I'm already getting teary again.)

I am working on a memorial post for her. I'm finding it hard to write about her still, though, and everything I've come up with has been, I don't know, too dry and just generally lacking something. I think I may post it as its own thread when it's done and link it here. I feel like there's been too much sadness here, in a thread that's supposed to be happy and pictures and fun things... I know I mentioned in the first post that the sad stuff might be mentioned, but seriously, this past month or two feels like it has been almost nothing BUT the sad stuff... :(


I edited one of my favorite pictures of her just a little bit for my avatar. I only have Microsoft Paint to work with and it's far from a professional job, but I liked how it turned out. Thought I would post it here as well. She had such pretty brown eyes when she was young. Even there at the end, though her eyes had mostly changed color to orange, there were some spots of dark brown in her eyes. My big fuzzy bird...

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She was a really pretty chicken and I loved reading about her. And don't sweat the sad posts. It's just part of the chicken-keeping experience, and life in general. The new avatar looks lovely. I will definitely read her memorial post. Once again, I'm terribly sorry for your loss. May Frou-Frou live forever in your fondest memories and your heart...
 
Ah, it is a part of chickening, an unfortunate one. Luckily the happy things usually outweigh the sad. I'm still hoping now that things have settled down, I can get back into posting happy thoughts. I haven't been very much in the spirit for picture taking, but I may just make myself go out and take some pictures of the girls this weekend to share. I may be missing my Frou-Frou a lot right now, but I do still have my 33 girls (and Mr. Reuben) to love and care for. Oh, and Crash duck, the little sassy squirt. :rolleyes:


So... I finally decided I would never get it just right, and posted a memorial to Frou-Frou. If anyone is interested: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1017154/goodbye-frou-frou

On that note, I think I'm going to go to sleep... We'll see what happens this weekend.
 

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