She hadn't seemed right the day before, and throughout the course of the day, we watched as our little barred rock hen went from walking around, foraging, to a miserable, unresponsive lump of feathers. Even though we brought her in to nurse her, doing everything we could to revive her and make her comfortable, she was dead this morning.
Being confronted with a death, even one as seemingly "small" as that of a chicken, should give one pause...especially since she was our first animal loss. We know that this is part of the responsibility of keeping and living with animals--no matter how much you cared for, loved, and provided for them, they will all eventually come to an end. But as homesteaders, is facing the inevitability of death a bad thing? Perhaps is it a necessary part of understanding and valuing life.
In the video below, Andrew shares his heart in this first of our new series, "Homestead Thoughts."
