We have our first set of chickens

Waiting... by now you must know how I hate WAITING !! aaarrrrgggg..
Our friend had some chickens, healthy, beautiful and ready to make their home with us...


But... The coup wasnt ready and it looked as though it wasnt going to be for a while..
I asked around for a chicken house which I have hopefully found, (recycle and reuse),, (holding thumbs for it).... 
We have a doggy who finds fresh chickens very delicious so I cant just let them run around which would of course be ideal.. They DO however need a big enough space to be in so, some chicken wire is needed... LOTS of it, to make a fence... 


The darn stuff costs a fortune and I haven't been lucky enough to find some that wants a home.. YET.. SO, while we are waiting to build them their fancy pansy chicken home with gardens... We decided to use the bird avery..

 We found another home for the white doves which we inherited with the house.. 


Very sweet but none of us have a passion for doves so they were wasted on us.. (and we are vegetarian so we couldnt even make dove pie)..
(don't worry animal lovers, we found a good home for them and that ddoesn'tinclude being underneath a pie crust).

Good old Elvis and Jo transforming the dove avery into a chicken home..

We have a lovely field filled with grass which we are mowing and using as mulch for the garden and bedding for the chickens.

The idea is to throw compost in for them to eat... and after a few weeks take out all of the chicken poo, grass and leftover compost and use it to feed the veggies...

Wonderful fertilizer.. 

Not sure if I mentioned yet that wonderful Elvis DID return and he is absolutely FANTASTIC..

He lives on the farm and the plants literally flower when they see him.. He knows so much about veggies, plants, chickens, farming and is super strong.. definitely Joeys hero.

Time to release them

Ta DAAAA.. we now have a home for them while they are waiting....

1. 

One of them escaped and is happily prancing around the secret garden.. Yes the chicken hungry dog is still around but so far she can't even come close... there are far too many thorny hidy holes.. We do prick our ears for a shout from her every now and then though, just in case...

We have had an egg every day since.. (there are only 4 chickens so far, 2 of them a bit too young for laying).. This is wonderful news.. Being vegetarians, we need eggs.... 3 strapping growing veggy kids eat MANY eggs...

Most chickens are fed mielies (which are sadly Genetically modified).. I am a GMO activist... (didnt I tell you that part !!).... completely and utterly against GMO food and will do anything to avoid feeding it to my family..... NOW do you see how important our own eggs are?

Our chooks eat, sunflower seeds, plenty of compost and every now and then rice.... Looking forward to a few more to add to the family and to help it grow healthy and strong..

We found a Hare

Joey boy found a tiny baby hare under one of spinach bushes. How SWEEEETTT !!

He came running in with the little bundle..

Her leg looked strange and stiff so we took her straight to the vet..

(the vet lives next door but we still drive to his office which is just in town)..

He looked at every tiny inch of her and couldn't find anything wrong..
He even took her temperate with the thermometer in her behind... to the utter shock and horror of little Ruthi !! he he.. 

As soon as we got home.. Breeze (15 year old daughter) swooped in and took over.. She made a little house for her from a soft fluffy hat and a cardboard box, Even blended up carrots and spinach and fed her with a homemade plastic bag bottle..

Of course knowing absolutely nothing about hares she did a bit of online perusing to see how to go about looking after her..
We had no idea how old she was which didn't help things at all..
Sweetest thing !!.. I wouldn't mind her eating all of the lettuce in the garden !! Well maybe not ALL !

After 2 days of hardly eating or drinking we started to worry..

I found her out of her box yesterday morning looking very cold and stiff, on touching her she fell over into a little spasm of sorts....
It almost looked as though her back or neck was broken.. How awefull... Breeze was out so I whisked her off to hubby who is known as the household hot water bottle because his body heat is boiling (like one of the wolves from twilight!)..... He sat with her for about 4 hours while I searched online to try and determine her age..(Gosh I love the internet )..

After looking at some pics we discovered that she was much younger than we had thought.. Well at least it seemed so.... maybe 1 week to 10 days..


A syringe and puppy formula was in order.. AND some rehydrate (pinch of sugar and salt in warm water).

We kept her close for the entire day.. body heat and food and water as often as possible..

It was like having a baby again.. he he..

A bit of kangaroo care for tiny little Poopsi (her name)

It all worked beautifully.. warm and fed, she had enough energy to hop about.. SO
oo cute....




Everything was going so well, We were shocked when she had another spasm in the evening.
It was a big one that lasted about 30 minutes.. Justin (husband), held her again and watched her struggle with her life..
Sadly she died...
I would have held her if he wasn't there but it was too emotional at the time and I'm afraid that Im a wimp when it comes to someone else's suffering.. It's too much to handle..

If there isnt a brave soul about to give them comfort, Ill be there like a fierce lion to hold and protect. The responsibility of holding her and watching her die was just too much..

Little Joey was terribly sad in the morning when we told him and slightly confused because she looked so healthy before he went to bed..

We put her into a little box and wrapped her up in some cloth.


Next morning I caught a glimpse of Breeze marching into the secret garden with a box and a spade and watched her digging a hole that was VERY deep... 
Poopsie was buried wrapped in a soft blanky and a ceremony was held in due respect with friends and family...

       

                                                                     

Sweet thing.... I just love the way kids make things so special.... Ruthi and her Friend Emma created a song, procession, a bunny reading, (which was wrapped in plastic and put onto the grave afterwards),  flowers, glitter and  WITH after funeral smoothies!