Simple living in the country - back to basics

Karmacat

Fingers crossed indeed, I hope *that* sort of negativity continues.

A functioning greenhouse would be a lovely thing, but so would being ready for lovely rellies to pop by.  Have a good one  

EssexHebridean

Here's hoping that the tests have continued to be negative! 

Great progress on cracking on with the IronMay stuff - I'm in awe of your cycling distances already after not having done much for it for a while! 

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all 😊 Fortunately covid has NOT appeared in the house, thank goodness. Don't need that on top of everything else! 🙄

Spend a lovely sunny day at Mr Cheery's dad's house, laying a laminate floor. It's not finished - still needs the architrave round the edges, and the awkward corners behind the TV, but at least the actual floor is done. We couldn't have done any more that day anyway- didn't leave til almost 11pm, and didn't get home til 1.30am 😱

Minimal tidying up the next morning for my family visit. Nice to see them, shame it was raining. Also, Bessie Chicken was oddly ill - eyes watering, walking really oddly, seemed really disoriented 😕 Mr Cheery stayed with her while I took family out to a cafe, and to collect some TGTG local cheese which had appeared on the app while they were there - my sister was jealous of mine and wanted some of her own! 

Sadly, yesterday Bessie was worse 😕 so I'm afraid she had a one way trip to the vets 😪 So very sad - not helped by seeing a vet we've not seen before, who wasn't remotely knowledgeable or helpful, and didn't seem to know what to do with two grown adults sobbing over a chicken 🙄 I mean, I would expect that from a member of the public, but not a specialist vet.

Anyway, Bessie was the last of the old guard. Almost 6 years old, with us for over 4 years, and we will miss her very, very much. 

It also means the end of chicken keeping for us, for now at least. We decided that once Bessie went, we'd pass the others on. Just didn't expect to lose three within a month - that's never happened before. Doesnt seem to be related, just a coincidence, they all had different symptoms, and were all knocking on a bit, although Bessie was by far the oldest.

Anyway, I've contacted my friend to put us in touch with her friend who said she'd take our two remaining younger ladies - none of us expected it to be this soon though, so if she can't, I'll find them another home. Hopefully soon - it is far too sad to just have two chickens, especially two quite new ones who haven't really settled in yet 😕

So I missed pretty much a whole day of work yesterday, so need to get my act together today!

rtandon27

Oh Cheery - so sad for you - sending over a big virtual hug xx

Baileys_Babe

Sorry to hear about Bessie, that is very sad news 🤗

Karmacat

Cheery, I'm very sad to hear the news about Bessie - what a wonderful long time she had after being homed with you!  And what a good thing you already know that you need to rehome the younger two.  I honestly don't think two are a problem short term while you're finding a home for them - not that I know anything about chickens, sorry (colour me a bit embarrassed there).  I suppose I'm thinking you do well for all your animals, whatever your course of action is.  Plus you've got Mr Cheery's dad who now needs a lot of input from you, there's only so much you can do in a day, a week, and so on.  Take care.

Cheery_Daff

Thank you xxx

The two we've got are fine on their own, they've had a few weeks of free ranging so know that the back door is a good source of treats, and the porch is a good place to shelter. They know their way back to their own run of course, and where the dust baths are, and where is good for digging (the veg patch 🙄). Just feels like they're rattling about a bit in the run on their own! 

Hard to think of being out here without chickens pottering about - I wanted them so very much, and it was one of the big things about moving for me. But we can't continue in the same way we've been doing it, it's all got ridiculously emotional and we need a break. We're going to give ourselves a year, and see how we feel next spring (and also see what the bird flu situation is - I hate having them shut in for 5 or 6 months of the year).

EssexHebridean

Absolutely the right thing to step away from it altogether for a while while you get over the awful shock of losing three so soon one after another, it's always incredibly tough losing a pet, and when it's more than one and the timescale is so short your resilience doesn't have time to rebound at all before you have to deal with the emotions all over again I think - we had something similar with dog and cat within a month or so a few years ago and remember sort of feeling as though it was doubly hard having to deal with another death before we'd got over mourning the first. Sending love and hugs. xx

Merlin's_Beard

It's so tough when they all get old together and you go through a period of knock after knock after knock.

The bird flu situation has been absolutely mad over the last 18 months. I don't know what the long term solution is when a) the underlying issue is tied in with wild bird migration patterns and climate dependent changes in those patterns, and b) it's such a big zoonotic risk (it's really hard to catch it from birds, and it's hard to spread human to human, but the fatality rate is about 50% if you do catch it), so I don't see a situation where housing rules are relaxed while there are lots of cases (ie every winter). I've seen a lot of chicken owners saying they're just not going to bother to replace birds.

themadvix

So sorry to hear about Bessie, Cheery. She must have thought she'd died and gone to chicken heaven when she came to you though, so clearly that's why she stuck around for so long.

Glad you haven't got Covid, but do take care of yourself x