This is my first post in……..I honestly have no idea how long. It has been a long and, quite frankly, incredibly toxic multiple years. There has been such an amazing amount of trauma over the last 9 (fuck! 9!) years that all the good things that have happened during that time have been overshadowed by it. I’ve struggled to find my way back from depression and cPTSD and I think I’m finally making progress.

This is my second batch of chickens since we moved to our new property. I got some chickens last year and got the chicken coop in the barn all set up and the automatic door working and everything was good. Then I hurt my knee (a bunch of torn cartilage and severed ACL, surgery was not fun and I still can’t drive) and something got into the coop and scared the chickens so they quit roosting in there and since I was on crutches I had issues getting out there and all my poor chickens became critter food. They were roosting randomly in the barn and got picked off one by one over the the course of the week. I was pretty upset, but sadly there wasn’t much I could do about it. Nature is a harsh mistress and knee injuries are no joke.

I went in on an order with both the neighbors from Ideal Hatchery in Texas. I got Buff Orpingtons because they are supposed to be friendly and have friendly roosters. One of the chickens I had last year was a Buff Orpington and she just looked like such a tidy little chicken when I went to order I just had to have a whole flock of them. They are also supposed to have nice roosters and the rooster I had with my flock last year started chasing me around and I’m just not down with that.

The babies are now down in the basement in my makeshift brooder that consists of boxes blocking off an area for them. I’m really wanting to put together some sort of more permanent brooder situation that I can easily put up and take down. I did some internet browsing and came up with an idea that I’m hoping to put together today or tomorrow, crossing my fingers it works.

In the mean time, here are some pics of the babies:

My neighbor gave me the incredibly helpful idea of using pee pads for bedding for the first bit because its a lot less messy with them in the house. This is the first time I’ve tried that and I have to say, I’m a convert. So easy to roll up and just throw away. Its extra, non compostable trash, and that really sucks, however, I’m giving myself permission to do what I need to do to get motivated to just do the things so next time I can do them better. The non yellow chicks in the photo are the neighbors babies I am brooding for her. Its just as easy to brood 35 as it is 23 so the more the merrier.

-Fin