How to raise Backyard Chickens: Re: [CHICKENS-101] Chicken story.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Re: [CHICKENS-101] Chicken story.

Thanks for sharing this. We have a 43 year old daughter living with us. Sometimes she is a teenager and other times she seems like she is 5 years old. It is something we have to accept each day that this is the way it is. I will be glad when I get my chickens. The weather is starting to get warmer here and I can get the coop ready soon. I am looking to buy some pullets because I don't have a place to raise chicks.

Dale

On Thu, Mar 13, 2014 at 11:56 PM, Diane Straight <straight6@earthlink.net> wrote:

That's right, chickens are enjoyable just to have around, the eggs are a great bonus.

I had a baby that was both sick and retarded. I spent every effort on seeing that baby live and make progress. All babies take a lot of time and effort, but this one was at least double. All my houseplants died, not sure I planted a garden some of those years, some of the perennials disappeared too, the cat died and was not replaced, and so on.

She was sick so much that I couldn't take her anyplace, she caught every germ going. And the cold air made her worse. She had a serious sinus/upper airway problem, plus she caught all the childhood diseases. Had a terrible case of chickenpox, almost died. I was the one who wound up in the ER with exhaustion.

And I couln't really find anybody much to leave her with. Everybody is always willing to help, but just try asking one person to take care of a sick, retarded baby who doesn't talk or even cry, for an hour while you go to the doctor, and they all have extremely important things to do that day. We did get some help from one lady who had a sick child of her own that had died.

After a few years of this, I got so I couldn't walk away from the house. I couldn't walk down to the mailbox, couldn't really go work out in the yard. I could leave in the car, but not walk away from the house. Panic attacks. I tried counting steps, tried walking with my husband, tried everything I could think of, but I just couldn't breathe, was dizzy, heart jumped, all sorts of bad symptoms.

Got really tired of that, so I got rather angry at myself one day, went over and cleaned out the old chicken coop, and bought some laying hens. It's nice over there, other side of the driveway. Sun shines in the window, shaded in the summer, just a nice place to be. And the hens came over and "talked", the way they do, just like old friends.

It was a safe place to go, as it had been in years past, and of course I HAD to leave the house and walk over there every day to give them food and water, so I had to get used to it. They provided a safe destination. Those chickens saved my sanity and healed my mind that summer. I did get over the problem.

Chickens can be good for lots of things!

Oh yes, my daughter is now 30 and doing just fine! Nice girl, young teenager I think, still lives here with us.

Diane S.