June-Aug 2008
Goldie was our first chick that survived longer than a few days. Previous to her, we had buried several chicks, most had lasted less than 24 hours, as they were very, very sick when they arrived at our Chicken Club med. Goldie arrived from The Other Side with an injured leg. She was whisked off to the neighbours, where she was bandaged up and sent to her new home for TLC. She was kept warm and fed, and her leg healed completely. Goldie accepted us as her mamas, and she enjoyed naps on our lap, she was also very young when we got her, maybe a week old. We would make our hand into a tunnel and she would slip her head in and peep contentedly. She would follow us around, and when she was playing outside she would eat mosquitoes off our legs. In particular, she seems to have imprinted on our hands, and when she would be sitting next to me on the desk when I worked, she would scramble up on the keyboard to be with my hands. She also loved sitting on our shoulder sand nuzzling into our hair, maybe she thought our hair was funny feathers. Goldie was also a singer. Happy chicks have a sing song peep, and she would sit on our lap while we worked, or sit in the sun, or on our shoulder and sing away. We loved her, but while we were in Costa Rica she died. She was very skinny and probably had contracted coccidiosis. So, her loss started my quest for knowledge in chicken pathology. Now, I have a chicken dispensary in my fridge.
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