The name’s Peck. Gregory Peck.

The other day we lost Chicken 22 to old age. She was clucked out, but had a fun and free life after we rescued her from battery farm hell. A lovely lady and one of the oldest we had.

At the same time 22 reached her final days, a friend of a friend told Chris that she was moving  house and needed someone to take on her hens. Yes, it writes itself… The hen numbers are back to where they were a few months back. Lovely pets, and these two new girls are stunners!

Sally & Mabel

Avid readers of this blog (ha!) will probably have realised by now that we are animal mad…

It just got madder.

Chris picked up a new family member at the stables the other day. An injured bird had been hanging around for a few days, so with our birdy experience, Chris decided to nurse it back to health.

Gregory Peck joined the madhouse.

Now we know chickens are clever, but this guy is worlds apart. You can see him think… he looks at one thing, then moves on, then back to the other thing…. and you see the thought process… He’s not the largest crow I’ve seen, but he’s still a big lad.

He’s been in a fight. Maybe another bird, birds, fox… car? and he has an old scar across his back under his feathers and his head is half bald. This scar may be pulling his skin when he tries to fly, as he doesn’t seem comfortable getting airborne, even though his wings are fine.

He has a mild chest infection, and is a bit bug infested, so he is going through some bird nutrients and a bathing ritual to clean him up. He already looks a lot better.

Corvids are among the most intelligent, if not the most intelligent, of birds. Peck has shown this by completely accepting us as friends. Day one and he was very wary and pecky to us. Day two, after food, bath, blow dry and mite powdering he is easy to handle and no fuss at all. It is said that crows have very good memories and facial recognition, so if you cross one or mistreat it, it won’t forget. From a shy, scared and pecky wreck, he now sits on my shoulder with out a care.

More photos HERE.

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Turbo Chicken has lag

Turbo the ex-battery hen has always been skinny. This meant a recent case of sour crop really knocked her out. I managed to empty her crop (I hope to never smell anything like that again) and she seemed to pick up a bit. Hopefully a nights sleep would help her.

Next morning she was found on her side, unable to move. I mixed up some sugar water and slowly during the day she picked up some energy.

She’s eaten some solid food now, but she’s still weak.

Best still, she pooped…. which means she has stuff passing through her crop again…. YAY!… but boy did that also stink!

She’ll go one of two ways, but she’s comfortable & has enjoyed two years of freedom since we rescued her from battery farm hell.

Bird eat Bird

Spice, our lady cat, caught a sparrow.

It happens now and then – there are loads of them around and a cat could easily catch several just by running open mouthed down the garden… so no real shock there.

Last time she caught one I grabbed her, opened her jaw & the sparrow fell out and flew off before it hit the ground… (she can be evil and gentle…).

This time it was obvious the sparrow was done for, as Spice ran off before I could do anything. That’s nature for you… but…

…the sparrow was dropped as the four hens of the apocalypse sped down the garden, causing Spice to bolt.

The next thing I saw made me look twice… and keep looking in disbelief, as Chicken 11 grabbed the sparrow, then the four hens played tug of war, chase and catch with the sparrow, before taking it in turn to pick the carcass clean.

These are spoilt, well fed hens – but I’ve said it before about them – if there is something that can be eaten, regardless of if they are hungry, then they’ll eat it.

They are Omnipovores… Where ever there is something that can be eaten, then there you will find a hen…

I’ll never look at those dozy, daft, feathery, chirpy, psychopathic raptors the same way again…

We go Day-Glo…

Alex has snot blocks…..

The end of 2008 (September onwards) was a downward spiral of, well, crap for us.  The New Year came in and nothing changed – after all, it’s just a date and nothing magic, so what do people expect?

Chris is getting over the tail end of sinusitis and Alex is deep in a really bed chesty cough that has him unable to eat properly, and keeps him coughing so much he up-chucks. Add to this his totally blocked nose and constant river of thick luminescent snot slime and you realise he isn’t a happy boy – a bit scared at times as he doesn’t know what’s going on. Poor lad has trouble eating and drinking as he can’t breath as he fills his mouth… so he starts to panic and cough… and then it’s just a mess.

Now I’m going down with it – I have lasted over a week before succumbing to either Chris’s or Alex’s illness, but it’s here now – not full blown, but still not great.

What with finances, boiler breakdowns, illness and other family news, you can see why we are looking forward to 2010!! It’ll put space between us and 2008 for starters…

Now I know some people say “life is what you make it” – and to a point I agree, but anyone can be hit by a car, regardless of how positive their outlook on life.

No, life isn’t what you make it – life is what it is, but a positive atitude will get you through it better than a bad one.

The more positive you are, the longer through a really bad period you can make it without going mad!!! We are surfing close to that edge at the moment, but we have the good fortune of being a family with a young child.

A single person living on their own just doesn’t have the same drive to survive as a family member – especially the head of a family.  I’ve been there and to me there is no argument here, and I don’t care what anyone says – If you are a childless single person, it is very likely you have no idea of the pressures to not go under.

I know you still have bills and issues, but then add the children to the mix and you have to protect them as well – so it isn’t just your house you could lose – it is their home. It isn’t just your face you have to feed – you have them as well.

This focus does help keep the fighting spirit going though. We aren’t alone in our problems – and we are much better off than countless others in the world, but it is the worse we have seen and as such it is quite a load on us. We will just stick at it and get ourselves out of the other end.

There are no other options but to keep forging onwards.