You'll always be my favorite...

Charles died today. This morning at six I went down to check on him and he was all stiff. Emma raked a nice spot out for him by the chicken coop. I wrapped him in a shirt of mine so that he wouldn't get covered in dirt. It is a nice green with three little chicks on it. It reminded me of when Charles was a chick. We weren't originally going to get Delawares(his breed), but they were all cute and yellow in the Grange so we couldn't resist. Anyway, Dad dug the hole and I walked around the coop and aviary with him. Jed gave him a tribute(aka crowing), and Dad, Mom, Emma and I said a few words. Then, we had to leave because it was starting to rain. We will always remember Charles as a great chicken, and thank you guys for being so supportive(Anna and others).

Charles and Shadow

Charles is laying down now, she made it through the night.

Shadow was very sweet. Last night the two touched noses and Charles preened Shadow's ear.

Also, Shadow likes moving around Charles's box. Charles doesn't seem to mind.

Charles report

Charles is still alive, and she is a little perky. She still hasn't moved, except to lie down in her box. Shadow has been really cute. There are two boxes in our garage, one with Charles and the hay in it. Shadow jumped in the other one and whenever we go out there she jumps out and sits next to us. We gave Charles some Gatorade in a cup, and she has drank quite a bit of it. The Gatorade has lots of electrolytes in it, which is supposed to help. I hope she makes it through the night.

A tribute to Charles.

This is really sad and unexpected. Today we went into the coop and Charles was standing there, with his head and bum down. He wasn't moving at all, and Charles is usually the most active of all of them- trying to escape and running around. We took him into the house and set him near the fire on some newspapers, but he still wouldn't move. That was on Thursday.

Today his comb was purple and he kept his eyes closed for long periods of time. We took him up to the house and put him in a straw-filled box. We sat with him for two hours, and tried to feed him water and Gatorade, but his eyes were closed. He can't seem to sit down, so we think he is egg-bound, which means he can not release an egg. I have checked all my books, but I can not find anything remotely similar to what Charles has. You all know of course that Charles is my favorite chicken, and I am pretty sad about this. He will die either today or tomorrow. You may think"Oh he is just a chicken, you have 11 more". But it is like losing a dog or cat to any of you.

Click here to see all the posts with Charles in them.

I didn't want to post a picture of Charles in his current condition, I just don't want to remember him that way. I want to remember his curious, crazy manner that I liked best about him. Here are some of my favorite pictures of him: