Chicken Goodbyes....

Today we said goodbye to two wonderful chicken friends.

I had been looking for a new home for Lola since all the mauling of the chickens had started and today I got a call back from a local farm and dairy that is just up the road from us, that they would be happy to take Lola and give him a new home. This dairy is one of the few dairies in the area or possibly our state that makes and sells raw milk and cheese. It's outstanding, as I hear is their beef and chicken. Everything is organic and free-range and they take really good care of their animals.

So today we loaded Lola up in the car (In Gryphon's mesh laundry hamper) and drove him up. He immediately got down and ran under a fence into where the horses are. So many new things for him to see! Horses, pigs, cows, more chickens than you can count, all over the place. The kids that live there are homeschooled and really friendly and Gryphon and Ruby took up playing and running around with the girl and boy that came out, both kids were the same age as Gryphon and Ruby, and they were so cute together.

Lola strutted up to another smaller rooster and immediately was put in his place by said rooster. It really took him off-guard. I didn't see a food or water bin for the chickens and after asking the owner, she kinda laughed and said they are totally free-range and not to worry he would figure things out. I think she thought I was a bit crazy when she could see how pampered the Rooster was (we were carrying him around) and that he comes when called and that I was kinda (ok..really) worried about him. Lola was looking around at first like "where's the heated coop? Where's my own personal clean bowl of food? where the massage room? " He's going to have to get used to barn life now I guess. No more foot massages in the winter with healing balm for prevention against frost bite (no... I'm not kidding) no more hand fed scraps every day. (no more kisses and hugs and being carried around and babied) Ah well.... what doesn't kill us makes us stronger no? I think he'll be happy, and I know our hens here will welcome the change, although I did shed a few tears on the way home. (I also plucked a few of his feathers to remember him by.)

Also today we decided to finally say goodbye to another chicken friend. Our hen Laylou died last month and it was too cold to dig her grave and bury her so I put her in the freezer and she's been there for a month (my dad kept suggesting it was silly to bury a perfectly good meal in the ground, he thought we should have eaten her!) but aside from being vegetarian, she was our PET!

Laylou had died while trying to pass an egg. It was so sad, I had brought her in the house after seeing the blood loss. (her egg tube thing had come outside of her body) I even tried to push it back up in her and save her, I called the vet to see about taking her in, but I could tell she was on her way out and we wouldn't have had time. Besides after calling Chris in tears he gently suggested I was insane..."I want you to do what you need to to do make yourself feel better honey, but I hope you will use think rationally when making your decision, because we don't have $100+ bucks to save a chicken and she is after all only a chicken..." We said goodbye to her on the couch that day and hugged and kissed her and told her we loved her as she died. Today we burried her next to the coop so she can be close to her sisters. (who all crowded around her and happily dug worms to eat out of the hole we were digging for her grave.) And so today we said goodbye to two outstanding chickens, and the wheel turns again. We got the chickens last March at this time and now this March we will be looking to add two more pullets to our flock once we decide what kind we would like.. Stay posted... Here are some final pics of Lola as he was released to his new home.