Way OT, recent loss

snipped-for-privacy@cybermesa.net wrote in news:d84e9k$h3d$ snipped-for-privacy@reader2.nmix.net:

We raised chickens for a number of years. My daughter had hers so tame they would stay on her shoulder and she could bring them in the house for short periods (we have hardwood floors, so their lack of housebrokenness was not particularly a problem like it would be if we had had carpet).

I join you in mourning Flossie's passing, because I know what it's like to lose a feathered friend and how sweet chickens can be when you get to know them.

Oh Tom,

How sad! I'm so sorry for your loss. The loss of innocence in several forms - so painful. So sad with you .

A

Pardon this, please, but here is one of the few safe places I know to open feelings.

I never thought I would mourn a chicken, but I have just finished burying my favorite hen's body. In this dry, cast-iron New Mexico soil.

She was a Black Chochin, had a beautiful green sheen on her feathers. Of a broad-breasted breed, she waddled sort of turkey-like, and her run was a side-to-side rolling bounce, foot-to-foot, delightfullly comical to watch. She dutifully laid a brown egg on alternate days, occasionally on successive days. Her 5th-from-last was double-yolked, 2 3/4" long, 1 3/4 across. Whew!

I called her Flossie.

She was docile, quiet, made a soothing sound I'd call a chicken's version of a purr. Last summer's broody spell, I gave her a clutch of eggs from a friend's flock where there were roosters. One hatched, she raised it with grace and elegance, it grew to a large, gorgeous, red-and-black rooster. And mindlessly pecked her to death this Friday just past. He will soon be stew.

Farewell sweet friend. Thank you for gracing my life and giving me breakfast these years.

Thank you for reading me out.

Tom

Net-Tamer V 1.12.0 - Registered

My boyfriend's mother recenly lost her black cochin hen, Holly. She was rather sad, so I have some idea how you must feel.

We marvelled at how much more intelligent Holly was, compared to the other hens (different breed). Holly would follow anyone working in the garden, waiting to feast on grubs that were upturned. The surviving chickens hardly recognize the grubs when they're laid at their feet. Well, there is one, Goldie, who lived with Holly for a while. You can put her in the garden and she looks like she thinks there is something she vaguely remembers she's supposed to be doing in there, but she can't ever quite recall. Back when Holly was around as ring-leader they would chow grubs like they couldn't get enough.

I'm sorry for your loss,

-Charlotte

snipped-for-privacy@cybermesa.net wrote:

That's a beautiful tribute, Tom. RIP, Flossie.

Doreen in Alabama

I didn't know chickens would do that to one another. It's always sad to lose a friend. Joy

Pets are pets what ever and you have my sympathy for your loss. May you find Flossie 2 soon. Emily

Tom, I too know the distress of losing a beloved pet, you have my sympathy.

Tom, I also have a beautiful black (bantam) cochin, and you described her perfectly, right down to the purr which becomes a chuckle when she gets her favourite treat (bacon rind). Believe it or not, her name is Flossy!! Our old Floss is past egg laying now but also used to bless us with a beautiful brown egg every 2nd day. I'm very sorry for your loss, which happened in such a horrible way

chris :-)

So sorry for your loss. We had a black chicken in our neighborhood a few years ago. She apparently fell off a passing truck, but quickly found my back yard and settled in. She was beautiful. Shiny black with a scarlet comb. Apparently the number of cats in my yard (the neighborhood hangout for cats) was not to her liking, and she moved a few doors away where she shared a home with an old couple and their dog. They named her Josephine. She and the dog established their relationship, and she helped pull weeds in the garden. She went in the house to check on things from time to time. She disappeared one day. We don't know what happened to her, and don't really want to inquire too deeply. I am looking for a black hen figure to add to my memorial garden.

I know what you're going through. Pets become like family members. When our dog died, I cried for days. As they say in the classics, time heals all.

Thank you all for your kind and comforting posts. You have helped greatly. My trust in your kindness is well placed.

With mixed feelings I had her last egg in my breakfast this morning.

On 2005-06-07 snipped-for-privacy@TRASHsonic.net said: > snipped-for-privacy@cybermesa.net wrote in news:d84e9k$h3d$ snipped-for-privacy@reader2.nmix.net: >> Farewell sweet friend. Thank you for gracing my life and giving >>me breakfast these years. >We raised chickens for a number of years. My daughter had hers so >tame they would stay on her shoulder and she could bring them in >the house for short periods (we have hardwood floors, so their lack >of housebrokenness was not particularly a problem like it would be >if we had had carpet). >I join you in mourning Flossie's passing, because I know what it's >like to lose a feathered friend and how sweet chickens can be when >you get to know them. >-- I have a friend in town who hand-raises her hens. They gather around her expecting to be picked up and held. A few days ago one came running out of the coop hollering to her, had just laid an egg, had to tell her. With pride.

I'm considering having Cochins in my next small flock, because of my good experience with Flossie. Several chicken-keepers I've talked with have dropped the breed because they consider their broodiness to be a nuisnace, interrupting egg production. Any idea if a number of them would tend to synchronize their nesting periods (and shut down my egg harvest) or stagger them?

Again, Thank You Friends.

Tom in New Mexico

Net-Tamer V 1.12.0 - Registered

Do you have "Australorps" or Leghorn/Australorp cross over there? If so - get some!

Australorps Black Good meat Rarely broody

250 eggs per year (3 hens for two per day)

Crossbreeds (Leghorn/Australorp cross) White Good meat birds at about 12 weeks Rarely broody

260 eggs per year (3 hens for two per day)

Leghorns White or brown Less quality meat Very flighty (escape, get into vegetable patch, etc.)

295 eggs per year Make a lot of noise

The above and below... is stuff I typed out for my own reference, from an Australian book called "The Chook Book". It's mainly for my reference, but thought I'd include it anyway...

Just Allan wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

yes, we do. they're on my list for next year's chicks. the SO is facinated with chickens. he likes the goats & pretty much ignores the llamas (except when he's feeding or helping me catch one), but he spends a lot of time watching the chickens & making them new 'toys' (perches, nestboxes, etc) so they won't get bored. usually they free-range around the yard, but until the fox gets her kits off on thier own, they're penned. they're excellent for keeping the ticks out of the yard & eating bugs in the garden (once the plants are established! otherwise they kill seedlings or eat the seeds). you do have to watch free range hens though. they hide a nest... we found 14 eggs under Boo's slide & 36 eggs in a patch of artimesia :) lee

Just Allan posted greatly about several chicken breeds, and other...

Flighty and jumping the garden beds are undesirable characteristics in my life - I have a couple of Hamburg/Cornish cross that are absolutely destructive pests around my several small garden beds.

My friend who gave me the chickens warned me away from feeding them sunflower seeds, said their crops would fill with the hulls, not clear out, starve them. (Confirmed by autopsy.) Can you shed light on your source's recommending sunflower?

Thanks.

How we do wander!

I should go oil my sewing machine...

Did I tell you about its previous owner lubricating it with automotive motor oil (because it was an industrial machine?). Ran loudly and with great sullenness. Several applications of the finest textile machine oil returned it to the loveliest of purrings.

Next job will be repairing a tarp for covering a pile of straw bales. Wouldn't a really big table be nice? Like a sail loft I visited near Key West, Florida: about 1000 sq. ft. heart-shaped raised floor with sewing machine set into the center. Lust!

Tom Willmon Mountainair, (mid) New Mexico, USA

Did you ever stop to think, and then forget to restart?

Net-Tamer V 1.12.0 - Registered

One has to treat them right - just like chickens, they are fussy seeders! My sewing machine man has given me industrial sewing machine oil for my serger (Huskylock 910) because I use it so much!

You and me both! I have a couple of loo tents to put the zips in for the cubs... One is old fashioned cotton canvas, the other light weight rip-stop nylon... The things we do for love!

If anyone wants the book, just email: snipped-for-privacy@bigfoot.com - remove the xyz first. It's a Word document, in a 111KB winzip file. If someone can't open/read that, let me know what you can.