A Very Busy Summer!

Hello. As you may have noticed, I have not posted in some time on this blog, and I'd like to give an explanation for this. I have been having an incredibly busy summer. My family is involved in the flower industry, so summer is the busiest time of year for us because the flowers are blooming. On top of helping my parents out for much of the day, I am currently at an art day camp in Seattle, which will last for the week. I'll go home for a day or two to get my animals situated, then I will leave straight away for Camp Kirby on Samish Island, which lasts for a week also. This is a sleep-away camp. After that, I will be going to a math day camp in west Seattle. I'll then have another week or so prepare for the Skagit County Fair, where I will be showing some of my poultry. On top of all this, I have 4-H meetings that I have to weave into my days at camp. I have tons going on, so please excuse me for not posting regularly. I'll give my best effort to post during the fair, as I'm sure you'll be excited to hear about that.

For now, goodbye and have a great summer yourself. :)

Rest in Peace, Dove and Taylor

I would like to post a memorial for Dove and Taylor, two of my porcelain Belgian bearded d'uccle pullets. (Pullets are female chickens under a year old.) I was given Dove and Taylor, along with five other chickens their age, sometime this April, by a friend. I soon after discovered that they were infected with coccidiosis (pronounced cock-sid-ee-oh-sis), which is a very bad and sometimes fatal chicken disease. I had luckily had these birds in quarantine (isolation), so that the rest of my flock was not infected. I contacted a chicken expert that I knew, and he told me which medication to use on them and how to go about treatment. I followed his instruction, and less than a month later the little birds were as good as new. Everything went well for the next month or so, until four of the chicks were killed in broad daylight by what I can only assume to have been a feral cat. This left Dove, Taylor, and another chick, Henrietta. Dove and Taylor stayed close to each other, but Henrietta loved (and still loves) to explore. Recently, Dove and Taylor began showing the symptoms of coccidiosis once again, only this time it was worse. Both of them went downhill quickly, though I treated them. I decided to give them both two days, and if they did not show any sign of improvement, then I would humanely euthanize them. Dove unfortunately passed away before the deadline was over, and Taylor was on her way out. We made the decision to euthanize Taylor, as she obviously wasn't going to improve.

Dove and Taylor were both incredibly sweet birds, and I will always miss them. Dove loved to sit on my shoulder, and I often fed her extra dried corn as a treat. Taylor was one of the fastest chickens I knew.

Taylor is the bird in the front. Behind her is her sister, Emily, who was killed by the feral cat.

Dove, sitting on my shoulder while I put stickers on bouquet sleeves for my parents.

 Rest in peace, Dove and Taylor. You will be missed.