Homestead Thoughts: On Death [VIDEO]
She hadn't seemed right the day before, and throughout the course of the day, we watched as our little barred rock hen went from walking around, foraging, to a miserable, unresponsive lump of feathers. Even though we brought her in to nurse her, doing everything we could to revive her and make her comfortable, she was dead this morning.
Being confronted with a death, even one as seemingly "small" as that of a chicken, should give one pause...especially since she was our first animal loss. We know that this is part of the responsibility of keeping and living with animals--no matter how much you cared for, loved, and provided for them, they will all eventually come to an end. But as homesteaders, is facing the inevitability of death a bad thing? Perhaps is it a necessary part of understanding and valuing life.
In the video below, Andrew shares his heart in this first of our new series, "Homestead Thoughts."
Aww, I'm so sorry! Poor chicken :(
I think death and the importance of life on a homestead is actually really important for more people to be aware of and understand. May I include this post in the next issue of the Weekly Homesteading Newsletter which is a series posted every Sunday that aims to help collect homesteading stories and resources like this one? This article will be linked and your username featured if you accept - please let me know if it is alright to include your article as soon as possible! Again, I'm sorry about your hen... :(
Absolutely! We're happy to share what we're learning, especially if others can benefit from it! Thanks so much, and feel free to take any of our articles in the future!
Thanks, by the way. She was a sweet, unsure little hen.
How have I never heard of this newsletter? I'll be checking it out more often!!
Thank you for your permission and it is a new/small newsletter so it's very easy to miss haha! Thanks again
Hey there! I just wanted to inform you that your article has been included and linked in the most recent issue of the Weekly Homesteading Newsletter! Please check it out if you have the time! Thank you and have a great day!
:( I feel like most people in our society, myself included don't know how to deal with death because we see very little of it growing up and people just don't talk about it. I think the first profound death in my life was my grandmother and I was 19 at the time! You are so right no one will wish they punched that time clock longer, it's all about family!
I think if we talked about it more, it wouldn't necessarily make dealing with death any easier, but we would at least have a framework to work from when it does come.
It's realizations like these that drove us to move out to the country, like Andrew said. No job I've ever had has ever been worth my family, I know that for sure. Thanks so much for watching and commenting!
I completely agree! Hoping for better chicken happenings in the future for you guys!
We DID just get 16 little fuzzy baby fluff-balls, so there's plenty of life on the homestead, too. :) Little Buff Orpingtons, Rhode Island Reds, and Easter Eggers, which are probably the absolute cutest of the chicks.
oh my! I can't wait until we get our chickens but it's going to be awhile. Let me know what you think of the rhode island reds vs the buff orpingtons. We originally thought RIRs were better for us but were convinced buffs would be better so that's what we decided to go with. Still have many months though, rabbits first!
The chicks are so tiny it's hard to tell. But I WILL tell you that our adult Buff Orpington hen is our favorite one. We've only ever had one, so that's not a good research pool, but she's a great forager, the only one that's laying so far, and not a jerk. :)
I hope you guys didn't lose all your buffs :( I think we are definitely leaning towards orpingtons first and then maybe later getting a breed that lays more if the demand for eggs is high!
That was the worst part... we lost all but ONE of the buff chicks, including the feisty little one that I was trying not to name. SIGH.
The adult Buff that we do have is awesome. She's a good forager and the leader of our tiny little flock.
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