RIP Grizz. December 11, 2009
Posted by ourfriendben in chickens, homesteading, wit and wisdom.Tags: benefits of keeping chickens, chickens, homesteading, keeping chickens
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Our friend Ben and Silence Dogood were very sorry to get an e-mail from our friends Delilah and Chaz letting us know that their beloved Barred Rock hen, Grizz, died this morning. If you’ve never raised chickens, or you raise them, then butcher them every year or two, you won’t be following this. So let me fill in the gaps.
First off, Grizz was ten years old. (Chickens can live to be twelve, and, if you don’t kill them off, will keep on laying eggs the whole time.) She’d had a real luxury lifestyle compared to most chickens, including ours: Delilah vacuumed her coop and chicken yard daily. Grizz had a heated coop and heated water dish. Like our own flock, she was given an extraordinary array of nutritious kitchen scraps every day in addition to her conventional scratch grains and egglayer pellets. She was one spoiled chicken.
Chickens are flock animals, preferring the company of others, and sure enough, Grizz was never lonely. Whether she was palling around with other chickens or mothering a clutch of baby ducks, she had plenty of company. She had a great life.
Like Delilah, we consider our chickens partners for life. True, they supposedly lay fewer eggs as they get older, but we’ve never actually experienced this. After their first year, our chickens wise up and stop laying when the days grow short in the winter, conserving their strength to keep themselves warm, then starting up again when the days start lengthening in spring. (Chicken farmers get around this by heating and lighting their coops over the winter, but we’re happy to give our hens a well-deserved break.) Yes, we do have to break down and buy eggs (from a local farmer who free-ranges his flock) until our hens start laying again, but it’s a deal we’re happy to make to prolong their lives and keep them happy. They give us so much—incredibly rich, delicious, organic eggs, companionship (chickens are very personable and affectionate), and fantastic high-nitrogen fertilizer from their droppings, not to mention feathers for fly-tying and crafts—surely we can give them a winter vacation in return.
We love our chickens. They give us so much and ask so little in return. Twelve years of phenomenal eggs for every chick seems like a great return on investment to us! We try to keep six hens at a time, which provide all the eggs we can use and plenty to give to our friends. We’d like to see people raising chickens in every backyard.
But yes, they do, eventually, die. And after so many years, you do indeed feel like you’re losing a good friend. RIP Grizz. Your family and friends will miss you!
I just never thought about how long chickens live~It is a life long commitment….Let me make a confession~~it’s possible that I’ve never tasted farm fresh eggs. At least that I’m aware of! Must remedy this soon! gail Do I see snow flakes falling on your blog? Very clever and so 21st century! gail
I wish I could send you some of our eggs, Gail! Not only have we never seen their equal, everyone we give a six-pack to says the same and asks for more. Yolks the size and color of glaceed apricots. Yum!!! And yes, you are seeing snow. Even Luddites like us were able to follow the foolproof directions on our blog host, WordPress, to add the snow. We love it! But sadly, they only keep it on until January 4th. Hey, how about February 28th? It’s bound to still be snowing here…
Rest in Peace Grizz, I love the visual of her coop being vacuumed! That’s awesome. I straddle the fence about the chicken longevity issue. As a kid, I raised show birds for 4H and would have never, ever thought of anything but a death from old age for my birds. They were my pets, my buddies, I spent many happy hours with my Ladies and they were just incredible birds. Incidentally they were a White Leghorn (my multiple best-in-show bird), a Barred Brahman, a Partridge Cochin (gorgeous!!) and a Sicilian Buttercup. Later I added a White-faced Black Spanish (named Theda Bara.) Anyway, hit fast-forward: Now my neighbor has a production-oriented flock of over 25 birds of varying ages, which she carefully culls every few years. I help her with this all-day affair, starting with sleepy birds placed in boxes in the dark, and ending with delicious preserved chicken soup. It’s a real learning experience, something straight out of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” book, something I am happy to help out with, in exchange for several jars of that *incredible* soup. Back in the day I would have rather been boiled in oil than help with such a thing, but now I’m fine with it. When I get my own small flock of birds again though, they will be Partridge Cochins, will be spolied rotten, and they will not end in a soup jar.
I agree, Bonnie, if you’re trying to eat your chickens, you certainly don’t want them to get old and tough! It all depends on what you’re raising them for. Since we grow ours for eggs and fertilizer, we’re happy to let them reach a ripe old age. (But our feeling is, if they want a vacuumed coop, we’ll loan them a DustBuster and let them do it themselves. And when they’re done, they’re welcome to come in here and start on our floors!) And now I’ll have to grab my “Extraordinary Chickens” book and check out Partridge Cochins!
My daughter Chickenpoet raises chickens, (and she is a writer of poetry but doesn’t let anyone read it) and they all have names and receive the best care she can provide. But nature, sometimes foxes, cats, etc. has a way of cutting their lives short before any have lived that long. She may have one or two from the originals, but I don’t see how she has not run out of names for them by now, so many come and go. The fresh eggs are amazing. She has one hen that lays in the winter, though not very often. I would love to have some, maybe someday.
Frances
Ours all have names as well, Frances. The current flock includes the half-sisters Imelda and Griselda, plus Olivia, Roxanne, Lucretia, and Stella. Chickens are low-maintenance and so rewarding. You have to get some!!!
OMG! Poor Grizz! I did NOT know chickens lived so long! Here on the cattle farm the main cows are kept for about the same span 10 to 12 years. Recently the matriarch of the herd was sold off and there was a complete restructuring to determine who the dominate cows were. I think each cow has one or two calves a year, which are sold off, while the main herd stays the same. I would really love chickens, but there are foxes and things here. I couldn’t bear that.
Wow, I didn’t know they kept cows that long either, Lzyjo! If you want to get chickens, consider doing what we did. We bought dog kennelling and made a 16-square-foot kennel yard for the hens, then roofed it with more kenneling panels so nobody could get in from on high. We put 4-foot-wide hardware cloth down, with 2 feet outside the kennel walls and 2 feet inside, to discourage anyone from burrowing in. The coop is inside the kennel yard. So far, nobody’s ever gotten in and hurt our chickens!
A ten year old chicken? Wow! We used to have 3 chickens and a rooster–Myrna, Shirley, BadChicken and Madison-the-rooster. But they made more eggs than we needed so we gave them to a friend who sells a few dozen eggs a week. Seemed a good thing to do. Sympathies to your friends on losing a feathered friend.
Great chicken names, Jodi! We hope your friend keeps you all well supplied with eggs!
Oh my – twelve years is a long time. I’m hoping to get some chickens myself this year and may be calling on you for advice. I’ll start with 2 or 3. Hope they live as long as Grizz – sounds like she had a rich, wonderful life.
Hey, there’s snow falling on your blog today!!
Feel free to call on me anytime, Jen! Chickens are something I actually know a bit about. And yes, It’s snowing here at Poor Richard’s Almanac! Even we, Luddites that we are, were able to figure out how to turn on this fun WordPress feature. One of the many reasons we love WordPress!
I always thought they lived about 8 years. Maybe different breeds live different lengths? I’ve thought about having a few layers for twenty years. I still don’t have them. I do eat farm fresh eggs though. I get really nice free range ones when the farmers markets are open (June-October). I love their taste and bright yellow yolks. I hate winter when they aren’t as good. Right now I’m buying them from a local farm which has pretty good eggs, but not as good as the farmers market eggs.
Our hens take the winters off, so we’re forced to eat free-range eggs from our farmers’ market then too, Daphne. The shells are a gorgeous deep brown, but once you crack them, the yolks pale (literally) in comparison to ours. I urge you to get a few colorful girls of your own! Keep them safe, and you’ll enjoy them for years to come. As for longevity, I frankly don’t know how long bantams live—we’ve never seen the point, since we love the big heritage breeds—but the heritage breeds will all live as long as twelve years if they’re protected and well cared for. Doesn’t mean every chicken will live that long, though! Ours typically make it to about eight to ten.
I really didn’t realize how long they lived! 10 years is a good life for most pets and it sounds like Grizz led a very good life. Maybe one day when we have that house way out in the country we’ll start a coop, we love the fresh eggs!
Here’s wishing you a coop of your own, Dave! Btw, one of the more ingenious chicken-keeping arrangements I ever heard of was a greenhouse set up to accomodate both plants and chickens. The chickens helped keep the greenhouse warm and the soil fertile!