Our first fatality in chicken farming. Dippy had to be “sent out to a farm in the country” this morning. She wasn’t getting any better, and some signs of deterioration were more than I cared to ride out. I’ll be sorely disappointed if I end up in hell because I didn’t give this chicken sufficient recovery time (not because of the thousands of them I’ve consumed as some god-awful factory output.)
Please welcome to the family, Frances. Well, that’s her temporary name. It turns out that Dennis, the chicken master, had given us a white Rock instead of an Ameraucana (as a result of confused head paint markers). So, that’d have meant we had two Rocks. Since Dennis guarantees his birds, and had goofed in the first place, he was more than happy to supply us with a same-age Ameraucana. She’s totally freaked, of course.
That means that Frances is an Ameraucana and Dotty is actually a white Rock. Everyone else retains their previous racial profile.
As a side note, Dennis lives quite near One Green World nursery, and so I stopped there to pick up a couple of Goji berries, a vining hydrangea, and an Arquebina olive.
Note to self: It’s a sure sign you’ve been to the nursery too much when they know how to spell your first name without asking.
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Sorry to hear about Dippy. How are the kids taking it? I thought Dotty was awfully light-colored, since our old Auracana was black. But then I figured I don’t know exactly what an Amercauna is, so I kept my yap shut. What color is Frances?
Without going into excruciating detail, this has been an “interesting” experience on the whole life and death spectrum. The kids mostly don’t care one way or the other. I’m mostly surprised at the fact that I was able to dispatch the poor thing without either barfing or crying.
I probably contemplate death too much, but I’m starting to feel more and more like I get it. Making the ultimate truth tragic by definition is pretty silly. She was going via disease (slowly) or my hand (quickly). Not sure which is “better” but the end result was going to be the same.
On the lighter side (so to speak) Frances is sort of a mottled tan/brown. I understand that Ameraucanas can be about any color. Seems that there’s some debate as to what constitutes an Ameraucana vs. an “easter egg” chicken, and I really don’t give a fart either way.