Like Three Seasons in One Day

There have been many changes since I posted last, so here's the past 10 months in a rather large nutshell...

The bad news first: Sara Fezziwig Chicken passed away quite suddenly on September 1st; the temperature had climbed into the 90s, and she apparently died of heat stroke. It was quite a shock to find our beautiful golden queen chicken lifeless on the ground. Sara wasn't even 3 1/2 years old, but chickens who are raised for meat or eggs are sent to slaughter much earlier than that, at about a year and a half. Sara had the longest, happiest life we could possibly give her. We're so grateful she had one more summer with the run of the backyard, after her long winter spent indoors in 2010-11, when her best entertainment was chasing raisins, ripping into bunches of kale we hung up for her, visiting the rabbits, or pecking playfully at Sergei's toes. Here's Sara and her sister Sophia, at 10 months, on a beautiful March day in 2009.

In October, cancer with a small "c," a basal cell carcinoma, was removed from my face. That's the type of skin cancer that kills practically no one as long as it's caught early, and mine was. They took it off, and that's the end of that!

Then on April 11th, we lost our little Natasha kitty to kidney problems. Steve adopted her at age 6 months or so in 1997, so she was at least 15 years old. A week before, Tashi was still racing around the backyard at top speed. Even if she spent most of the rest of her time curled in her heated bed, she was only very ill for the last few days of her life. We keep trying to remember what a long and happy life she had.

We miss Tasha terribly, and so does Sergei, who now sleeps with us every night, right up on our pillows. Very cozy and warm on cool nights. Another change has been that, in January, Steve's cousin Matt moved to North Carolina. It's been quite an adjustment not having him around any more after ten years, but he's glad to be back in those beautiful mountains. Here's Matt with Sergei perched on his shoulders, since there's no pillow available!

Charm and Peridot are doing well, snuggling together, merrily digging at old phonebooks, nibbling paper in their tube, and arguing over barley biscuit treats.

Peridot

Charm










They very much enjoying being petted. Some rabbits like being held, some don't, and while both Charm and Peridot like being held and cuddled, they're terrified when they sense I'm trying to pick them up, and race away. Problem is, rabbits need their nails cut every 3-4 months, so it's something that I must keep working on. And get help with their nails in the meantime. Every time I start to get discouraged about this, I remind myself that my knees actually have calluses from being on the floor with them so much!

Here's Carlie, who now shares the coop and yard with Anne and Emily; she looks much like June, but has a completely different personality. We call her our little aviator---Carlie's always looking up and flies to get where she's going at every opportunity---and she's a big talker, and has more than once been the first to sound the alarm at the sight of a hawk.

Our 50,000 bee girls and boys survived the winter very well, and Steve has been successfully treating them for mites, so they are healthy. About month ago, they swarmed, but Steve successfully coaxed the swarm into sticking around our yard, so we now have two hives.

Steve's mom and my stepfather Andy are doing okay, facing health issues that being in your 80s bring. Old age is not for sissies, as someone has noted, and they're both proving that. I don't believe I've ever posted photos of the cats that my mother rescued from the streets of Omaha, and who have now followed her over the bridge: Bonzi, Chatty, and Roo.

The Story of Sophia: The Luckiest Chicken in the World

We lost our little "yellow bird," last Thursday, March 19th. Sophia (full name: Sophia Fezziwig Chicken) was always enthusiastic, always the first one out of the coop in the morning, chirping and clucking, She never slowed down until sundown told her it was time to go up to roost. That day was no exception. When I went out in the backyard to check on them in early in the afternoon, though, Sophia couldn't stand on her own, and while she didn't appear to be in any pain, she wouldn't eat even her favorite noodles nor drink any water. The kind veterinarian at the Emergency Clinic for Animals was unable to save her, and she passed away that evening.

The vet is still trying to figure out exactly what happened, because their grain mix (18 different grains!) is 18% protein---the % that our research indicated was appropriate---but the condition of Sophia's liver seems to indicate she was eating too much protein. Why is now the question. Moreover, she also may have died from that problem, plus a birth defect, as well as an acute condition such as having eaten moldy birdseed from the outdoor birdfeeder, or even from the supply in the coop. The small container in the coop that they ate from had probably not gotten eaten down to the bottom during the winter, and just a few days before, it had gotten knocked over. She might have eaten the feed that was at the bottom, which may have grown aflatoxin (which is about as dangerous as it sounds, both to chickens and humans). In other words, it might have been our fault that she died. Needless to say, we want to do everything we can to fix the problem, and make sure it doesn't happen again; we've moved the coop and cleaned everything, taken away the birdfeeder, swept up all the old grain, etc. Sara seems to be fine, but is now on a special diet---cooked brown rice, leafy greens and veggies and fruits only---and upon the advice of the vet, we'll be giving her milk thistle tincture to cleanse her liver, just in case.

The three nights that Sara spent alone were clearly distressing ones for her. During the day, she spent much of her time standing under the rosebush in the corner, not doing much, and sought us out whenever she could; she also didn't want to go in the coop at night. The second evening, I was sitting with her for a bit, and she jumped up on my lap, something she'd never done before---never being as affectionate as Sophia---and then started climbing up onto my shoulder and head. I realized that this was like what she used to do with Sophia, when the two of them would scramble over one another in bedding down for the night, deciding who was going to get comfortable. Clearly, we needed to find Sara more hen sisters, and fast!

Happily, yesterday some generous folks who had more chickens than they needed gave us two Rhode Island Red hens, 2 year-olds. These folks hadn't named their chickens; it feels funny not to call them something, but we're waiting to see what they're like first. Both are somewhat shy and nervous. They're almost identical in appearance, a beautiful deep red chestnut brown color, but the larger hen has a black feather in her tail and is a little bolder, and the other has lighter colored feathers at the ends of her wings, and is the shyer of the two. Unlike Sara and Sophia (Aracauna chickens), they have big, floppy combs and full wattles, and their combs are different, too. They cluck softly when interested in something, becoming much more vocal when they're confused or afraid. The bigger hen and Sara tangled at first, which is normal, (if worrisome to watch. Eventually, Sara asserted herself as queen of the coop. (It was the same with Sophia and Sara---Sara was top chicken.) It looks like they're all going to get along fine, now that the pecking order has been established. Best of all, after they all went up into the coop last night, Sara was singing, which she hadn't done since before Sophia died.

We'll always miss our cute, curious little girl, who trusted people and always wanted to be picked up and petted by everyone she met, but it helps to remember that Sophia was one very lucky little chicken. A million chickens are killed every hour in the U.S. alone. We were very lucky to have known her.

The Amazing Poultry Sisters

AKA Sophia and Sara Fezziwig Chicken (L to R). (I gave them the middle name of Fezziwig because they have what look like sideburns, reminiscent of the character Fezziwig in Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol.") Here they are in August, at about three and a half months, perching on our back porch railing, hoping for special treats before bedtime. Little blue eggs appear in their nest box every other day or so. (Sophie was the first to lay, back in early November.) What are vegans doing with chickens and eggs?! (You might be wondering.) Even though we don't believe that humans need to eat animal products to be healthy, we have eaten a few eggs from time to time from my (vegetarian) sister-in-law's rescued chickens. When we started getting involved in and learning more about sustainability and permaculture, keeping chickens for eggs became a question for us since eggs are one way of getting protein without wasting alot of resources to do it. We still aren't entirely comfortable with it. But most vegans were vegetarians first, and we do plan to sell some of the eggs. If folks are transitioning from veggie to vegan, or even if they never even go veggie, better that they eat eggs than "meat," and better that they get those eggs from chickens who are treated well in every way, and who will never be slaughtered, whether they are laying or not.




Now that it's winter, Sara and Sophia live in a wonderfully snug coop that Steve built for them, where they can go out into an enclosed space during the day, and peck at their head of cabbage, as well as other morsels (soy okara, rice, tomatoes, plums, any kind of greens, and tempeh are favorites). They can go back up into their loft bedroom any time they want, where they have a heater. The temperature is easily monitored indoors, and if it starts getting too cold out there, we heat up big cans of water (empty olive oil cans) in the oven for them.

Their personalities are so different---Sara is the leader, but Sophia is more outgoing. Where Sara holds back, Sophie rushes in enthusiastically. For months, they were wild for worms, and would rush to wherever Steve was digging in his gardening to look for them. By the time fall came, they were less interested in worms, though, maybe knowing their protein needs had changed? They're very happy girls, and love to be held and scritched around their neck feathers.