I Don't Know What to Call This One...

I have lost another chicky baby. Matilda got pretty sick yesterday. Today she gave up. She was laying down this evening, having a hard time breathing. She was pretty lifeless. My poor girl! She passed peacefully. She was such a pretty baby, my little chipmunk. She also had the sweetest tweet. 

Matthew 10:29-31 has brought me some comfort. Jesus says,"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of the Father. And even the hairs on your head are numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." He watches over the sparrow. Surely He watches over my chicky babies.

While I was watching Matilda laying there struggling harder and harder I was reminded of another baby that I once cared for. I don't know what her given name was. I knew her as Eun mi. Here she is.

I took care of  her on her fist night at the orphanage in China. She had been abandoned near the North Korean border. By God's grace she had been brought to the House of Love. There was much rejoicing and prayer upon her arrival. That must be a bit what it is like in heaven when one of God's children come back to him by accepting His son as their savior. That is a cool thought. Anyway, we took her to the hospital. They said that it was a miracle that she was alive and sent us home. It was the dead of winter in northern China after all. The hospital was not very modern at all. Here she would have been rushed to the NICU.

Mother Anne asked me to care for her over night. I kept her on my chest most of the night to make sure that she was breathing. I fed her often. She seemed to have trouble eating. Later we would discover that she had a cleft palate. It was interior, with no outward sign. She was precious and tiny. I hardly slept that night. I was so worried about her. I prayed over her and sang to her.

The next day I moved with her to the baby nursery where she wouldn't be held as much. It was hard to leave her there. I knew that she was in good hands, and that she was loved. We left the orphanage for Tianjin a few days later. When we called the orphanage before leaving China we learned that Eun mi had passed away. That was the first baby that I ever lost. We cried, mourned and rejoiced that she had known such love and care for a few weeks. Some pictures of Eun mi were shown to doctors back in the states and they believe that she had a heart condition as well. Poor girl. How we loved you! I can't wait to meet her in heaven! 

Thanks God for reminding me of Eun mi. I guess that I have done a lot of care taking in my life, and suffered many passing on. I don't know the purpose of it all. I do know that I trust God and I thank Him for my soft heart.

The other baby chickies have been lectured-no more giving in or giving up! You must stick around and stay strong. I am going to try to hit the hay. It has been a long weekend.

I will keep you posted.

Let the Naming Begin!

Alright, here we go. Time to name my girls, until I find out that they are boys anyway!

This is Xena. She is a Golden Lakenvelder. Pretty , eh?

This is Trace. Loud mouthed and fast talking! She is a Blue Cuckoo Maran. She is a bit bossy if you can't tell!

I believe that this is Matilda. This was a few days ago. All of the other pictures were yesterday. Matilda is suffering with coccidiosis. I couldn't put a sad sleepy picture of her up here! Her wing feathers are starting to grow in though.

This is Atta Girl. She is a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte. Sounds fancy!

 Here is our other Blue Cuckoo Maran. I just can't come up with a name for her!

This is Jemima. I love that name! I guess that I read too much Jemima Puddleduck when I was a kid. She is our other Blue Laced Red Wyandotte.

This is Edith. She is a Black Australorp. Isn't she something? She is a bit bossy with her height. I hope that she is a girl!

Meet Elroy. Yes, I hope that I am not cursing her with a boy's name, but it just popped into my head and I love it. As best we can tell she is a Blue Splash Maran. She should be light with gray "splashes". I can't wait to see how she turns out!

I still have four Cuckoo Marans that I need to name. I can't quite tell them apart yet, except that one has feathered legs. I know that one is Hunca Munca. I also know that one is Hyacinth. She enjoys hosting candlelight suppers with riparian entertainment. The others have yet to be named. Any suggestions? I need three names. Let's see what you can come up with.

My Babies

My babies crack me up and break my heart. We are at a dozen now. I have been treating them for coccidiosis. A couple of them are looking rough. Come on babies! They get this illness from eating their poo. Being baby chicks, they pick at everything! Coccidia are present in all chicken intestines. Most build up an immunity over time, but it can make them sick. The coccidia affect the intestinal lining, irritating it and causing possible hemorrhaging. I have started treating them. Hopefully I caught it in time. Come on chicky babies! Two of them seem to be suffering more than the others. I am watching them closely. 

On to happier thoughts, here is a video of my babies. A bug got into their brooder today and they went nuts! Have fun watching!

Stay tuned...

Ode to Wuella

Thank you everyone for your encouragement, support and mourning with me. I had to take a bit before I could write more. Here she is. She was so cute and sweet.

She moved when I took this one.

I knew that she was struggling today because her neck was weak and she wasn't tweeting. I went in to give her her second meal of the day and she had passed away. All of the rest of the girls were quiet. I cried. I called Dave and left him a message at school. I took her out, of course. We will bury her and Lil' Runt together. Our first chick that hatched and our last chick that hatched. I am thankful for the experience. I learned so much! Many thanks to Andrew for helping me learn how to care for her. We celebrated his victory on Roswell today. Check it out here. It was great to be around chicken loving people after losing one. I will always remember our first chick. She holds a very special place our hearts.

The rest of the chicks are growing and starting to show their personalities. Loud, bossy, quick, quiet. Their wing feathers are coming in. They are so stinking cute. We have to start handling them more. We spent so much time taking care of Wuella that the rest of the girls didn't get a whole lot of attention. That is changing! This weekend I plan to take individual pictures and give them their proper names. 

If you want to come see the chicks, Tuesday looks good. Let me know. They will start looking funny in a couple of weeks as they start growing all of their feathers in and hit that unavoidable awkward stage. 

I am tired after a long day. We have a busy day ahead tomorrow. I will post more soon. stay tuned...

Gone

I went in to feed Wuella a minute ago and she was gone. I am bawling like a baby.

Chickens are Legal in Roswell!

Hooray! Chickens are legal in Roswell! My newfound chicken loving friend Andrew has been in this battle for a while. The judge is officially ruling next week, but we already know the verdict. Check out the article in the AJC. Andrew has been a great help in my chicken hatching and raising experience, lending me the egg turner, sharing knowledge, and currently helping me nurse my sick chicky and treating my others. Whew! Way to go Andrew! I am off to celebrate with the chicken loving folks.

I will have more updates later today. Wuella is hanging in there. I am trying to increase her feedings per day to increase strength. It is not unlike a newborn baby, trying to feed her every two hours. So far she is still fighting.

Stay tuned...

More Baby Chicks

Here are a few more photos. I will try to take a picture of every chick soon. I wasn't very methodical this last time and couldn't tell who I had a photo of and who I didn't!

They are changing every day. Their wing feathers are coming in already! They grow up so fast. Now they run and play and eat all day. I can't believe how much they drink now. I can sit and watch them for hours! Want to come join me?

Chick Parade

Here are just a few of the chicks. The first one if Wuella. She is still struggling to make it. I am attached to the little gal. Please pray for her to get strong! The rest have yet to be named as they are always running around! Soon enough I will have them sorted out. I hope that you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoy watching the little gals!

So cute!

All of the chicks are so cute! I have to get a good picture to post. Hopefully this afternoon I will. 

I have been watching over those chicks so closely that it is weird to be at work today! Last night was sad. We lost a another one. She was the last hatch so far. She was tiny and we called her Lil' Runt. She must have hatched before she was ready and used up all of her energy running around. We loved you Lil' Runt. I had big hopes for you. Now you can run around in chicky heaven.

Wuella is hanging in there. She is one tough chick! We started force feeding her yesterday. She seems to take it well. I fed her before coming to work today and will go home to feed her again at lunch. She amazes me. As long as she doesn't give up, we won't give up on her. She pulls her legs under her now and can walk a little better. It takes a whole lot of effort though. We are rooting for you little Wuella.

I'll have to get some video of the other chicks running around and eating and drinking. They are so cute! It is amazing the instinct that they have to do all of that. I am so glad for this experience. 

I will say that Wuella is teaching me a lesson. I need to get myself back into the Word of God. I have been slacking. If I don't feed myself, I will not be sustained. We all have issues that keep us from doing this, be it "tired legs", busyness, sickness. Wuella is reminding me of this. If I didn't feed her right now, she wouldn't have a chance. Thank you God for sustaining me and feeding me. Thank you for giving me a chance. I love you Wuella. Hand in there chicky girl. I'll be home to feed you soon! Thank you God for allowing me to take care of Wuella.

Thanks to all for reading and for praying. Keep praying for Wuella! I still have 5 eggs in the incubator. We'll give them one more day to see if they hatch. 

Stay tuned...