It was the best of times...
I know it has been a minute since I last posted about the chickens. To be honest, things were going just fine in the backyard, but I just didn’t have the desire to write. In the months since my last post, we have been collecting eggs daily, usually 6-8 a day. It’s a lot of eggs for hubs and I, so most of them have been given away to anyone who wants them. I estimate that we have collected at least 1,800 eggs, 150 dozen, give or take. 90% of them have been given to friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers. And I know how to make some amazing egg breakfasts. That was my thing, Saturday morning egg things. Bacon, egg and cheese wraps, sandwiches, scrambles and omelettes. With avocado, tomato, basil, all the things.
To catch you up, nothing major has happened except a few months ago, I re-homed Sansa. The white, fluffy footed girl. She kept going broody every couple weeks, and even though I could break her after 3 days, she would soon be brooding in the egg boxes again. She just wanted to be a mama. So I thought it was best to re-home her with someone who had a boyfriend for her and let her do what she wanted more than anything. She went to a nice lady with lots of room and and boyfriend just for Sansa. They are now happy parents.
Since then, things were good in Cluckingham Palace, until a couple days ago.
First I’ll backtrack a bit and say that when we started this chicken thing, I was working from home. I have since gone back to the office in March of this year. I naively believed I could still maintain a chicken coop and work full time. I believed that up until a 2 days ago.
Last weekend I noticed that a couple of the hens had swollen feet. So being a newbie, I Googled and YouTubed and found that they have bumblefoot. It seems easy enough to take care of, but it also requires a lot of vigilance and time. Back when the girls had fowl pox, I was still working at home and could easily go out for 30 mins or so to treat them daily. They recovered as expected and all was well. Now that I am back working at the office, I am gone from 8a-6p every weekday. As soon as I get home, I prepare a treat for the hens, spend a few minutes with them, collect eggs, and then go in and start cooking dinner. Weekends are usually jam packed with house chores, yard chores, other chores and errands. When we’re home, we let the girls free range in the backyard while we’re busy. I have very little time to actually dedicate to the hens, but I still tried my best to keep the coop and run clean. I also still believed that chickens take care of themselves for the most part and didn’t require a lot of intervention.
Well. It now has become clear that I’m missing some important things. Due to my lack of vigilance, the wet weather, or who knows what, three of them have bumblefoot, and one had evidence of a mite infestation, which means they all probably have a mite infestation, and one has a problem with her vent (the uh, egg & poop hole). OMG I panicked. This is a lot and I already don’t have the time to tend to them as they need. Veterinary clinics are booked for 2 weeks out, emergency vet appointments are very expensive, and even still, they will require regular daily treatment. CRAP!!
My next option was to find help from experienced chicken keepers. I went to a Facebook group and asked for help. And found an angel.
Alison lives 30 mins away, and offered to take the sick birds immediately. She rescues chickens regularly, caring for them herself, and then she will keep them or find good homes for them. We packed up 4 of them and headed out. When we got there, she had already prepared temporary homes for them, and dipped them for mites. She gave them food and water and let them settle in for the night. She’s a spitfire and a chicken queen. She knows her chicken care. I felt so inadequate in her presence, but so thankful that she was there. She offered to treat them and return them to us when they recovered. An angel y’all. This was 2 days ago.
She FaceTime’d me yesterday to give me a full update on the birds. She and her daughter are tending to Dandy, Fawkes, Baby and Sporty.
The run down is that the mites are bad, as suspected. Which means the other 4 are also infested, as well as the entire coop. Dandy has them the worst. Dandy, Baby & Sporty all have bumblefoot, with Baby being the worst. They are all getting the treatment and care they need right now. Alison is on top of everything with all her wisdom, experience and knowledge. They all will likely be just fine with Alison caring for them.
It was the worst of times…
Now, here comes the beginning of the end. Realization.
Fact is, Pierre and I are not cut out to be chicken farmers. This might seem sudden, but truthfully it’s been wearing on us for a while now. We thought we were doing everything right, but we are now faced with the fact that we are not doing everything right. When we started this venture, from what we understood, chickens are easy and don’t need much attention, they take care of themselves. We probably, ok definitely, went too big. We got 10 chickens right out of the gate and gave them a big home with seemingly everything they needed. We enjoyed them for more than a year, and now know that things have gotten terrible right under our noses. And that sucks and hurts and is a major wake up call. I never want to be the cause of an animal’s suffering. We should have started small. We should have been more proactive, more attentive, more… everything.
The hard truth is that since we both work 9-5 jobs, the hens are being neglected. Everything that is going wrong are relatively easy fixes, for people who have the time to do it.
The other major issue and probably the dealbreaker for us, is that in order to effectively treat a mite infestation, it’s going to require pesticides that are highly toxic to bees and pollinators. And I do not want to jeopardize my bees or any pollinators, nor do I want the poison in my groundwater. Our natural well is only 10 feet below the surface, and we use that water for our plants and gardens. A mite infestation will require a thorough treatment of the entire coop, all surfaces, and the ground. I can not expose my bees to that much pesticide.
But I also don’t want the hens to suffer. Giving them to someone who can and will take care of them is the kindest thing we can do for them. Continuing to try to take care of them in our limited free time seems self-righteous at this point. It’s a beautiful coop, and I love it with all my being, but things inside are not all sunshine and rainbows. Mites. Houseflies so many houseflies. Oh, and rats too. Rats.
I am heartbroken but also take full responsibility. These chickens are not just egg producers and meat, they are domesticated animals that depend on humans to care for them and fight all the baddies that are attracted to them. We are not those humans. They deserve someone better.
Alison is that person. She is a saint. Truly. She was immediately invested in caring for the hens just for their sake, and without so much as a hint of judgement. She just loves the birds. She will take our remaining birds as well. She will not accept any compensation. She instead insists that we just “pay it forward”. We’re going to pay it forward to her. We will likely disassemble the coop and set it up on her property, if she wishes. It’s a huge coop that can hold 20 or so birds so she will be able to rescue even more.
In the end, I do not regret our experience. It was fun and we loved the abundance of fresh eggs. We shared eggs with everyone and anyone who wanted them. Getting to know these fluffy butts was a joy and I will miss them terribly. I’m going to give up my beloved Ripley so she has a better life. Sweet Dandy and her sister Fawkes. Arya is still a butthead, but I love her anyway. The remaining Spice girls are feisty as ever but man they were top notch egg producers. They will all go live with Alison, be cured of whatever ails them, and be healthier and happier as a result.
Sometimes you just have to swallow your pride and do what’s right. And we truly feel this is right.
They will leave behind a huge patch of now nutrient rich soil. I will plant a garden and dedicate something to each of the funny little fluffy butts that once lived there. 🐓 🌸