Hallelujah! Yes, Steve is with child again! I’m going to be a grandmother again. And so, despite life’s ups and downs, despite deaths, life flourishes and the cycle continues. I think this calls for another poem...
A poem about the cycle of life by Ruby
Life is easier than it seems
Filled with love and joy and dreams.
Chicks start life with great hope
Through life and love they lope.
Start families of their own
Watch chicks until they’re grown.
And with the setting of the sun
Think life was a game well run.
Chicks start the cycle afresh
End and beginning once more mesh.
THE END.
Endnote from F L Campbell
Although Ruby’s Diary is a work of fiction many of the incidents are based on what I have observed in my own flocks over the years. Ruby has quite accurately described 12 months in the flock’s life and I only helped by fleshing out the diary with other stories from flocks past.
Watching chickens; their individual personalities, their inter-flock politics, their interactions with the world around them was a constant source of fascination for me and writing about it helped cement the bond I had with these wonderous animals.
Sadly, during the final editing of this book, a terrible tragedy occurred in Ruby’s flock. A young Husky dog jumped into The Chicken Area. The gate was closed – but what is a 4 foot fence to a dog that has just escaped its 6 foot fenced dog run? The dog had a morning of fun quietly ‘bothering’ all the chickens and ducks. It looked so damn pleased with its efforts when I caught it some time later. The upshot of the dog attack was that all the tame ducks were dead, Ella was dead, and Ruby...? Where was my wonderful, talented, beautiful Ruby? I went to the pond and saw Jack half submerged in the water – very dead, Ruby was near by. I believe Jack had tried to save her. I rushed Ruby to the vet but she was very badly wounded. Holding her down on the examination table as the vet gave her a lethal injection was one of the saddest things I’ve done.
I thought then that I wouldn’t be able to finish editing and publishing Ruby’s Diary as the sadness would be too great. But I quickly came to realise that I had to finish – as a tribute to all the great chicken personalities written about here.
I also realised that my remaining flock of five traumatised hens (Steve, Brian, Camilla, Buttercup and Sylvie) was directionless, stagnant and stressed without a rooster. I decided for their sake and mine that I needed to inject new blood into the future of the flock. I found three more hens – Laverne, Shirley and Bossy – and a new rooster, Mr. Wonderful – and he truly was. He brought such joy and cohesiveness to the flock once more and these additional chickens, plus the remains of Ruby’s flock, made sure the cycle of life continued.
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| Camilla and her new family to Mr Wonderful |
