A Rollercoaster of Emotions

This weekend should have been a time to celebrate, as we always do, for the Fourth of July. However, what started as a wonderful weekend ended in sadness and death.

My son came home, for the first time in almost a year and a half, and introduced his girlfriend, and my mom and stepdad came for a visit. Everything went well until Sunday morning. It started like any other day. I got up before everyone else. Got all of my farm chores done for the day and was back in having coffee. Then I went about my normal morning routine and cleaned up the kitchen, did some last minute dishes, and vacuumed the house. (Which woke a few people up)

My mom and Stepdad got here just before 11, and we showed them the chicken coop, greenhouse, and yard; which we are very proud of as we have built everything ourselves. While we were showing them the chickens and coop I noticed that my daughter's favorite chicken wasn't doing so well. She seemed to be gasping for air, and wouldn't eat or drink.

I dipped her beak into the water to get her to drink and she did a few times, but was still very lethargic. I suggested to my daughter that she go ahead and separate her into the smaller coop with some food and electrolyte water. For whatever reason, she decided not to do it.

About an hour later, as everyone was talking, I slipped out to go collect eggs for the day, and found our chicken had passed away. I removed her from the coop immediately, and came in to give the terrible news. But how do you tell your daughter that the only chicken she's ever liked, let alone loved, has passed away. I shook my head and my mom, stepdad, and husband immediately knew what had happened. When I looked at my daughter she didn't understand, so I had to tell her that Adobo didn't make it. She immediately started crying and left the room. I excused myself as well to go bury the chicken.

I knew the chicken was going downhill, it's why I suggested getting her some electrolyte water, but not listening ultimately made things worse. And, no, I don't know whether or not separating the chicken and giving her electrolyte water would have helped, but at least we would have done everything within our power to save her. In the end, we are down another hen, and are now going to need to replace them.

Death is inevitable, and on the homestead it's almost expected. I just never imagined we'd be dealing with it twice in such a short amount of time. Or that my daughter would have to say goodbye to her little friend so soon.

What should have been an amazing memory filled weekend, turned into one of sadness and death. We buried our feathered friend next to her feathered friend, and said goodbye to the sweetest little chicken ever. I will probably be getting my daughter some chickens of her own at some point so that she feels that connection to them again, but that will have to be after we can build another coop and pen, something much smaller than we currently have.