Just a little chicken.....

She was dead and cold last night when I picked her body up out of the bottom of my chicken coop. I saw her when I opened the coop to get eggs. When I saw it was her, I felt like I was kicked in the gut. She was my girl, I even named her Bubbles. I picked her up as a tiny little peeping fluff, I raised her to adulthood ate many of her eggs.

The beginning of last year before my husband and I started having health problems I convinced him to let me keep chickens. Now we live in town so that is a big deal. You have to go through a permit process, inspections....etc. I'll save you the details. Reluctantly my husband agreed. It was part of my hope to start becoming more self sustaining and being able to know what exactly goes into my food. I love that instead of going miles and miles to get poor quality eggs from the Super Market I got high quality eggs and the journey is 100ft. My husband got on the bandwagon and built a beautiful coop and we were in business.

I also wanted to make sure I wasn't supporting yet another cruel farming practice. If you think cows have it bad, just look up chickens some time. Again I'll save you the details but my goal was to have well loved, well cared for birds, without the cruelty.

So I bought birds from a local farm that was selling chicks in January last year. Picked up all these peeping little fluffs and away we went. All of them were doing well, have some pictures of me even cuddling with my chicks watching TV. Great fun. In March we lost one to a genetic defect. (it happens, and I did everything I could to save her) So I went back to the same place and they opened the door and said "choose". I picked up Bubbles.

She was absolutely filthy and had a respiratory illness when I brought her home. So she got extra special care and a couple mornings after I got her, I was in the shower and the bathroom was just hot and steamy so as soon as I was done with my shower I opened the bathroom door and hollered out to my husband "Bring me My Chicken!!" He thought I was nuts! It became a running joke. Once I explained to him what I wanted he got the chick laughing of course and we named her Bubbles because of the experience.

Now that first batch of chicks, minus Bubbles was all roosters. The farm sold me 7 roosters. So I had to get rid of them because we live in town. Broke my heart but I was able to find loving homes for all my "girls" aka boys. So I started over with a new batch of chicks randomly picked out of a different place. All of them also ended up being roosters. I ended up raising 15 roosters last year!!

I finally was able to assemble my flock of hens at a pretty serious expense, so I really was working hard to protect my investment. Each one has her own personality but Bubbles always was the sweetest and gentlest. She'd always come over and sit on my feet. She'd always talk to me every morning and I enjoyed her company tremendously.

The reason I'm talking about this is because we have had some talks lately on sacredness of life and for me she was sacred. I raised her and she depended on me to help me live a fuller life (by giving us healthy eggs). We had a symbiotic cycle. Now I have six other hens that are doing just fine, even in these below zero temps (we have hit 40 below here consistently a couple times last week and right now its almost 20 below.) Thankfully my husband built a really nice insulated coop and my girls are doing well. So it was a shock for me to find Bubbles last night.

I didn't cry or anything like that, I just reverently picked up her body, pet her a few times, thanked her for her life and I plan on disposing her body as soon as it gets warm enough to do so. I laid her reverently in my shed, in a box and will take care of her, when the temp is safer. I know she is now part of the living force and I will not feel bad, because I gave her the life that many chickens in the industrial world never get, she was loved from day one, right until I found her.

In the scheme of things, she meant nothing to the world she was just a little chicken, but to my world she meant a lot.