Almost the End

How I miss this sight in the morning... the view down the hill 

to the Spehar's ponds.  Mr. Spehar (the elder Mr. Spehar) has returned from 

Croatia, and has put plastic over his greenhouse frame last week, and 

plowed his half acre garden that sat idle last year.  He pumps water 

from the closest pond to the garden during the summer. 

Here's one last picture this morning of my beautiful Ferdinand, he of the 

loveliest of crows.  

While in the cable office the other day trying to straighten out our service, a gentleman heard me 

mention that I had some chickens to re-home. 

He piped up and took my name and number, telling me his son in law kept chickens. 

The upshot was, the son in law and his little two year old, Ms. Josie, came over 

last night to see what we had. 

This morning, I met them there, and they took Ferdie, God Bless them, because I was 

dreading having to give him away in the parking lot of the feed store... 

The beautiful Henrietta, friendliest of girls....

Mama Hen, though she was old, went with him too, because she is 

a good mother to the little chicks and hens. 

And my dear old Polish girl Buffy, seen here with her three now-bereft swains. 

He also took the tiny Speedy, my second-favorite little rooster. 

Fancy and Folly are gone. 

Snowball is gone, because she will set anything and stay on the eggs. 

You see how determined she is. 

And Fleura, the little bantam hen in the middle, is gone too. 

These two, Moe and April, are all that is left on the henspa side. 

April is a porcelain D'Uccle, but she is bonded so tightly to Moe I just could not 

separate them. 

 And Fluffernut... no one has wanted the year old Fluffernut, laying daily... and just the happiest of 

little chickens.  

I think she is still there. 

So three, where there were nearly 40. 

I left them alone, penned in their yard today, to recover from the trauma of their 

friends leaving. 

The man who took them is a very skilled chicken keeper, we had a long talk about 

his "operation".  A short haul truck driver, he and his family live on 6 acres on the west side 

of Tongie.  I knew I recognized his older daughter yesterday... it turns out she is one of the high schoolers that volunteer at the Good Shepherd, so we had a good talk about that, too. 

He has, in past years, raised upwards of 10,000 pullets for resale at 8 weeks... wow. 

I am confident my birds will be treated humanely and with consideration. 

Yes, God has blessed me again in this dispersal, to find loving and caring 

people to give my pets. 

So, what is left? 

The three bantams may come with me here.  I had decided against it, but 

if there are indeed just the three, then the small Orscheln's coop would work. 

It would not take up much space in the yard, and I could still have my birds. 

In the old henhouse are the three Porcelain D'Uccle roosters.  One has a bad leg. 

They are all about two years old, they were from the same hatch. 

I am going to take them next Saturday to the parking lot of the feed store, and give them away. 

Yes, I know they may go to people who will have them for dinner that night, but they are small and pretty, so they may have a chance. 

That leaves only the three elderly roosters, and the little hen with them in the rafters of the old henhouse. 

I am going to give them a while to be able to come down on the floor of the coop, and go out in the sun and have a few weeks of normal chicken life.  Then, when we are finished with all the clean up at the old place, and it is about ready to show, we will make a decision about them. Ideally, if someone were to want the place soon, they would accept the roosters as their new pets.  

Yes, it hurts me. 

If I can catch the hen, she will stay with me. 

I also have an offer from the mother of the goat people that she would take 

any I have left... but not the three old boys, so I have that in hope in the back 

of my mind. 

It has been a long, hard process, and not one I would wish on ANYONE. 

When you have pets... not livestock, pets... you become the steward... and it is up to you to treat your pets humanely and wisely to the end.  I have tried to do that with my flock that rewarded us so richly with eggs for the food kitchen for three years, and for family and friends. 

Here is little Abs this morning, laying in a patch of sunlight when I got home. 

She has an infection in both eyes, which we are now treating with drops three times a day, and she seems calmer already.  How itchy and miserable she must have been, plus the move... she must have been just beyond herself.  I moved the kitchen rug out to the door yesterday for Lilly to step on, as the yard has been muddy... I'll brush it off and put it back today... and...

Keith showed me how to operate this! 

Can you believe I could not figure out how to "bend" it to push it along?  

I'm empowered now!