August 22, 2008

At the RWA conference in San Francisco a few weeks ago, I was informed by a reader that even though Shelley Bates books were on temporary hiatus due to my work on my new YA series, I should still keep people up to date on news about the chickens!

I see where my readers' priorities lie. :) So, here's the latest.

Poor Bella (that's her above) presented some awful symptoms--bleeding vent, yellow matter oozing from it. After three days of trying to push something out, she was getting too weak to push anymore, and I knew I had to help or she would die. I got out the latex gloves and the KY Jelly, and inserted my fingers into her vent to try to find the blockage. I got way more than I bargained for. Four or five proto-eggs had bonded together in a huge mass the size of my fist, which would have killed the poor hen before she could ever pass it. There was nothing to do but break up the mass (with my DH anxiously asking, "Are you sure that isn't her stomach or her lung? You didn't just puncture her lung, did you?"). I pulled out three or four chunks of what looked like baked hard-boiled egg, and then both Bella and I staggered off into the garden to recover. It's now four days later, and while she's moving slowly, she's alive, the bleeding has stopped, and she seems to be recovering.

Bet that was more chicken story than you wanted, huh?

August 3, 2008

On the right are a few shots from events this summer.

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