Conclusion

It is very sad to say, but This is my very last blog post. This blog post is going to explain how all of this affected me, and how it altered my life. I will also state how the experience was, and what I got from all of this. Well, here we go:

Started from the bottom...

I feel kind of sad to see this all end. I don't really want to give Tweety back. I know I have to, but I've gotten emotionally attached to the little guy. I watched him grow into almost a full chicken. (Well, not exactly, but he's getting pretty close!) I feel as if I've adopted him, and he is mine now. But, I know I haven't. Going into this whole thing, I made a deal with myself saying that when this was all over, I wasn't going to get upset with it. That they are just for an experiment and I can't let them mean anything to me. Well, they do, but there isn't anything I can do about it. I'm going to miss little Tweety when he goes. Even though he can be obnoxious sometimes, he's still my little guy.

Sylvester, however, I got extremely attached to. When I heard news of his death, I can't even explain how upset that I was. My little penguin was gone and I never even got to say goodbye. It made me feel quite glum. I do not like to feel glum. I felt very frustrated, like it was my fault, like I did that to him, but logically speaking it was out of my control. This affected me in a bad way. It made me feel depressed for a few days. I just wish I at least could've said goodbye...

Having my chicks taught me a lot about the actual animal. I knew absolutely nothing about chicken -or birds in general- before I started this. Therefore, technically speaking, I have gained knowledge not only about chickens, but the dynamic of the actual bird. Which is odd for me, because I wasn't really expecting that. I'm not a big fan of birds, they kind of freak me out, but after this experience I must say I seem to have gotten more used to their presence.

This whole thing changed me in a variety of ways; it made me feel more responsible and needed. Without me always changing their food/water/etc. then who would? This also made me annoyed because I felt like I was their maid, or butler, or something in that nature.
In addition, I am so sleep deprived. I regularly have insomnia anyway, but with addition of screeching chicks at night, it just made matters worse. Every time I turn off the lights, the damn bird screams. He actually screams. I'm not exaggerating this statement, it actually happens. He literally screams. I thought maybe I'd get him a night light- that might help. Nope, didn't help. I can't ever fall asleep because he will just go insane for an hour and keep me up. I've been lacking in all of my activities (whether it be school, extracurricular, sports, etc.) and motivations. I've just been so tired...

What did I get from all of this? For starters, I'm not afraid of chicken anymore. I was absolutely terrified before, but now after seeing how they
grow up, I can see that they aren't as evil as I had always thought that they were. I gained the ability to face my fears head on, no matter how small they may be. I know that sounds cheesy, but it's true.

...Now we're here.

I figured I'd end my last blog post with some few funny videos about chicken. It may not apply to this specific blog post (however, the loud ones do, because its like Tweety every damn time I turn the lights off at night), but it does apply to the majority of my blog in general, which is what I'm going for, as I do have a humor blog:
http://youtu.be/PPftVQwyPs0
http://youtu.be/obQIdffSQUk
http://youtu.be/NHzTNuO1sow
http://youtu.be/qHZXuMbMPgo
http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=01BFCFNU

The Last Day

Well, today is the last day for blogging about my little chickie. (This isn't my very last post, but it is my last post about how Tweety is currently.) Its been quite a long journey having these chicks. It was a very emotional journey, especially the death of my baby Sylvester. I can't believe this is my very last day. (Technically I have Tweety for a few more days because I am going to bring him back on Saturday, and today is only Tuesday, so in technical terms I do have a few more days. But, like I have mentioned before, today is the last day of my blogging time besides the conclusion.) Tweety sits in the corner with his stuffed turtle and his stuffed pug (which actually happens to be one of my old webkinz. Back in the day, you were super cool in second grade if you had a Webkinz. I had probably about 30 of them. My brother did too. Funny story- I named my first webkinz Hungry because when I was registering my Panda online, my stomach was grumbling and I was very hungry. Alas, I named my Panda Webkinz Hungry. Okay now to get back on task).

He seems to be lonely. Tweety, I mean. It makes me sad. I don't want him to be lonely. Its not healthy for him. If the whole thing with Sylvester didn't happen to close to the day that its all over (aka today) then we would have gotten another chick. Actually, in one of my blog posts a few blogs ago (the one about Sylvester dying) I posted a picture of another chick and captioned it saying that this is how he should have grew. That chick happens to be one of Sylvester's brother or sister; they were from the same litter (or whatever that terminology is for chicken). Missy had contacted us, saying maybe we could come down and get that chick, so that Tweety wouldn't be too lonely, as it is bad for chick's growth to grow up alone, without a mother figure or a friend (so another chick). My mother declined, and told her I only had a few days left of the project. Missy lives in the deep dark corners of Alpine. Not really the deep dark corner, but she does live REALLY out there. The drive from her house to mine is probably about 2 and a half hours. Give or take 15 minutes, depending on the traffic pattern.

I took a photoshoot with Tweety today, here's the picture below:

He's been showing signs of behavior as an adult chicken now. He grew quite fast...

Well, to summarize what my experience has been like so far (without giving away too much of what should be in my conclusion), I've felt kind of stressed while having the chicks around. I always feel like if something wrong happens to them, its going to be my fault (and in the case of Sylvester, I was not even present and I know what really happened but I will not say it on here because I am a nice friend and lets just say it was definitely not my fault at all. Aaaand I am going off topic once again). Balancing school and everything else in my life, and then having to always go back to the responsibility of having this animal in my room that I know aboslutely nothing about kind of freaks me out. I get so tired of Tweety being there never stopping his songs. Singing singing singing away in harmony with the silence of the night... at literally 3:00 am every single morning. Its driving me insane, but at least its over. Its sounds bad, but finally. Its all over...

One of the last link's is an article about history and actually about chicken themselves. I thought it would be cool to check this out and learn a bit more about the animal. Since I know absolutely nothing about chickens, as I have stated before so the link is as follows:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/09/28/the-it-bird

In Solitude

Tweety is on his own now... Its quite depressing if you ask me. He's changed, for sure. He used to be very stand-offish towards me. Now, however, he only takes comfort when he's in my hands/I'm in his sight. If I just stick one finger into the cage, he runs over and cuddles into it. He seems to calm down by feeling my heartbeat [through my fingertips]. Its quite cute, actually. Don't get me wrong, I miss Sylvester very very much. In fact, its very hard for me to get over him being gone. However, from the start of this project I knew I couldn't get too attached to the little chicks, as I'd be giving them back the minute the fostering session (or project I guess, because technically thats what this whole thing was, even though it became more for me in the end) was over, I would have to be giving the baby chickens back anyways and they would go and live on their farm again. Whatever would happen to them happens. (Don't worry about them being eaten or something like that, its not that type of farm). But either way, of course I am getting attached to the babies (or baby now... not plural...sad...).

He's getting big!

His wings have grown a lot too! (It looks like I was ripping off his wing, but I can assure you no harm came to Tweety during this picture, before, or after (or ever).

I only have I think 1 or 2 more days left of this experience... Its been quite funky so far. They have all these needs that I was unaware of. They have to have friends growing up with, heat lamps, medicated bird food, special bedding, not wired bottoms of cages, etc. Its just a bunch of really funky, random things that they've needed. Its weird, but interesting nonetheless.

I'm having intense writers block at the moment, I apologize, so I'm just going to list the events going on in my life and how having Tweety is impacting that:
So today I had basketball tryouts, and I made JV which is cool I guess. The problem is, we have practice every single day of the week (except Sunday) and that is quite tiring. Its hard to balance school work and that at the same time. For example, practice ended at 9:00 pm tonight. I only came home to change before it started, so I didn't have any time to do my homework. I got home around 9:30 pm, ate dinner (well I plan on doing that I haven't eaten yet), transferred all of my supplies that I used today for school into my regular backpack, (Long story short: Whole family went to AZ this weekend, as you know. Mom came in today and not yesterday like my brother and I. Mom's car was parked in the Airport. My backpack with all of my stuff -homework, notes, school supplies- inside of it, so I had none of my stuff today at school and had to write everything down on a piece of paper and then transfer it and it was terrible, I must say) then finally I could do my homework/study/do this blog. Ah. Blogging. This whole time, I have to listen to Tweety tweeting like a rotten banana (?) right next to me. I'm just like 'wow can you shut it for maybe two seconds please I'm trying to work and I have a lot to do. Thanks friend.'

Okay, long day. I must leave your presence now. Adios amigos/amigas. (Look at me using my Spanish, thanks Profe.)

Today's link is an interesting forum about if Chicken's miss those who have died (this relates more to the beginning of this blogpost): http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/620454/do-chickens-miss-those-who-have-died

Moment of Silence

Today we must take a moment of silence for respect of the fallen. I was given news that Sylvester has passed away while I was in Arizona. The people babysitting them contacting my mom to inform me of this tragic news. I'll show the message below:
"Bad news....Sylvester died!!!! Seemed like he was fine last night when we went to bed? Sad!! Oh man! I feel so bad! Missy was worried that he hadn't grown at all despite always eating and drinking. Would you let Shelby know? And Missy said he probably had internal damage. There's nothing we could have done. :( Megan's crying... Missy told us that He's is a miniature chicken. That breed doesn't get very big anyway. She does have another one like him though. We can replace him if that helps..."

This is how he was suppose to have grown to

Apparently, he's had an issue from the minute that he was given to us. Tweety has been thriving, so we know (and Missy assured us) that we haven't been doing anything wrong to raise them. His lack of growth was a sign that there was always something wrong. (Missy, by the way, is the owner of the farm that we got the chicks from. I've mentioned her many times before- see more about her in my past blog posts).This has been very upsetting got our entire community. Whether it be me, Megan, Tweety, Missy, or anyone who's ever met sweet little Sylvester. He was known as being a nice, gentle, baby chicken. Everyone who's ever met him agreed he was very cute and cuddly, and extremely friendly. Every single person would just fall in love with the little guy the minute that they would meet him. He had a very kind old soul, and its very sad and tragic to see him go. I do not know what really happened to him or how, as I was not present to witness his death, but I'm sure he had a very peaceful passing. They say, when birds pass away, they grow an extra pair of wings in heaven.
Tweety has been quite unsettled since the incident, or so I've been told. They said he's been pacing back and forth and squawking loudly, mourning the death of his brother and best friend. Although at times they didn't get along and had to be separated, they were still best pals and Tweety was very sad to see his friend go. Even know he's very upset and I can tell he's not taking this whole thing well.

Responses after Megan posted a memorial on instagram

As we reflect his life, we cannot forget the great memories we had with him. Whether it be him being like a little penguin, giving him a bath, him falling asleep in your hand, snuggling up into his blanket, cuddling with his stuffed toy, etc. Now, we mustn't mourn and be filled with sorrow about his death; we must celebrate the life that he lived. Sylvester, We all do and will always miss you. Rest in peace my sweet sweet little baby chick. <3 <3

This is his burial ground :(

**Update: I've been told the cause of death was from internal bleeding. If one chick pecks at another chick enough (especially in the head) it can cause the pecked at chick to internally bleed and die. I'm sorry Sylvester had to go through this.**

I also don't know why its randomly highlighting white, so I apologize for the odd formatting.

This guy is going through a similar experience, poor dude.
Sad topic... http://youtu.be/kZbzcUwGoVE

(P.S. NO I DID NOT KILL SYLVESTER. I WASN'T EVEN THERE WHEN HE DIED SO THATS NOT PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE WHOLE STORY, ASK ME IN PERSON AND I WILL EXPLAIN IT TO YOU. BUT ONCE AGAIN, I DID NOT KILL HIM. THANK YOU.)

Vacation

As I've mentioned in my introduction, and a few other blog posts before, I'm going on vacation for a few days. (Well it isn't technically vacation, I'm going to my dads house and he lives in Arizona, therefore I must go to Arizona to be at his house.) The chicks are going to be staying at Megan's house (my friend, whom I interviewed, who is also the Niece of the lady I got the chicks from: see my Q & A interview blog with Megan for more information). So, basically I won't be blogging probably just tomorrow. I may or may not be blogging on Sunday, depending on what time I get home, but if not then I'll resume on Monday. Just expect a pause and a day or two skipped in my blog. 

***Yes I am aware this project was suppose to be going on consistently for a whole 14 days (2 weeks), but I have already gotten permission to basically go on pause and resume the blog after a few days. Thanks for the concern though, people, I appreciate it.***

Getting ready to temporarily go

I think the time apart from the chicks will be interesting for me. Because of the fact that I've gotten a little too attached to them, I believe that this separation period of this/these [few] days(s) will be good for both me and the little chickies. When I get back, I can see if they got any type of emotional attachment to me or something. Chickens have been known to be not very bright so probably not, but one can always hope, right? When I do see them again, I can write about the experience of how I felt and how I saw the chicks react to me coming back, or if they don't react at all. I really think this will be an intriguing experiment for me to see if they've actually grown to know me, and maybe they care about me? Do chickens care about people? Is that a thing? I honestly have no clue, but I guess we shall see soon enough. 

Tweety in mid-farewell fly.

When I was dropping the chicks off, they seemed to be fine. They were very nervous, worried, stressed, frantic. I can tell this by the tone of their chirping and when they are running back and forth again and again (they weren't doing that by the way). Megan knows the protocol probably better than I do on how to take care of the chicks, so I feel confident that she will take pretty good care of my chicks. But alas she will only be taking care of my chicks for a little more than a day, so not much can go wrong in that short period of time {knock on wood}. I've been getting updates, pictures, and videos from them, informing me that they're doing alright, so I have full trust in them caring for my baby chickens. 

So, a temporary farewell to my bloggians, as I put my blog on pause. I shall be back very soon. Don't miss me too much :P

Todays link, about leaving chicks alone for a few days on the backyard chicken website: http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/196819/leaving-chicks-alone-for-a-weekend

Chicks Separated!!!

                                                             BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!

The chicks have been separated! I repeat: The chicks have been separated! This is really big news and is very difficult for the chicks and myself. Chicks need to be together when growing up. Its almost essential. However, Tweety has been a bad, bad chicken. He's been standing on top of Sylvester, blocking him from getting any food or water, pecking at him, and not letting him get up. We contacted Missy (the owner of farm where we got the chicks from, and Megan's Aunt) for help. She told us the chicks should be separated, as Tweety was making a bid for dominance over Sylvester. She also said because of Sylvester's submissive ways, he wasn't going to fight back, therefore letting himself be attacked. If we didn't do anything about it, then Sylvester was going to die. We definetly could, would, and should NOT let that happen!
Alas, the 2 birds have been separated.

To separate them, we put snake fencing through the middle of the cage. We took out their little shelter -hut (otherwise known as the Super Pet Woodland Get Away) and that side of the cage has been converted to Tweety's side. They each have a food bowl, water source, and heat lamp. They can rub up against the side of the snake fencing to be together, but Tweety cannot attack Sylvester like he had been doing before. Also (this is really cute actually), we gave each of them a stuffed animal as like a 'mother' figure in their cage. I read online that doing so calms them down and makes them feel much safer. Because Sylvester was intensly freaking out when we separated them, we experimented and gave him a stuffed toy first. Its just a random stuffed animal that happens to be a turtle with long legs that I had somewhere in my room, and Sylvester loves it. Immediantly, he curled up into the stuffed turtle. It was a very cute site to see. It made him calm down a bunch too.

I don't really know what to think of all this. Its a lot to take in, you know? I've never known of a little baby chick going like completely insane and aggressive over another little baby chick to the point of separation. I understand when they're older and their adult hormones kick in that they will get more dominant over one another, but neither myself, nor anyone that I have told of this interesting news, have heard of anything like this happening before. Babies are suppose to be innocent. After all, they're pretty much helpless. They aren't suppose to attack each other! This like ruins my perspective towards my little babies chickens... I can't look at them the same now. For Tweety, I look at him hoping he feels guilt, but also hoping that this was just a phase and that they will improve in the future. I really hope he does. Its better for his well being. For Sylvester, I'm always going to be worried about him now. Whenever Tweety would knock him over, he stuggled to get up by himself. Sometimes he would just be stuck on his back like a beetle. Is there something wrong with him? Is this normal? Is he going to be okay? Should I be worried? I don't know what to think of this whole situation, but I can only hope that both of them will get better both mentally and physically.

Article about chickens having aggressive behavior: http://www.offthegridnews.com/2013/04/29/breaking-down-aggressive-chicken-behavior/
This is where I found to put a stuffed animal in the cage, as a mother figure:
http://www.theeggfarm.com/blog/2011/11/12/the-care-and-handling-of-baby-chicks/

The Life of Being a Chick

The Story of the Flightless Bird

(Tweety's Perspective)

Myself flying

It was a dark cool night. The heater was on, I felt hot, too hot. I jumped into the water, getting it even messier than before. Although I bathe in it, I drink it too. We're in a drought, might as well conserve the water right? My brother was sleeping in the food bowl again. He always sleeps in the food bowl. I swear all he does is eat, sleep, and poop. He never does anything interesting. He just follows me around, then tires himself out and falls asleep again. Sometimes when he's sleeping, I knock him over and try to wake him up.

"Sylvester! Sylvester! Get up! Let's go play! Let's have fun for once!" I say with excitement.

He usually just goes back to sleep. He's so boring. Me, on the other hand, I don't want to be boring. I want to do something with my self. I see all those other birds up in the sky. I bet their having a blast flying all around. Their wingspan is bigger than their entire body and mine combined! Well, My wings just came in so I think I'm pretty cool. I wanna be just like them. I want to fly!

Myself flying yet again

I spent the next flew days learning to fly. When ever my fabulously stunning owner, Shelby (who happens to be my favorite living organism who I think should be everyone's favorite living breathing thing because she's amazingly amazing) takes me out of my cage, I would go to the highest peak of her room full of adventure and spread my wings and fly! I mean... I can't really... You know... Fly... Because... I'm a chicken... But that's besides the point! My dream has always been to fly. I envy those crows and pigeons in the sky. I've always wanted to be like them. But now... Now it's time for a change! Now that my wings are in and I'm ready to try! I am the Little Chicken That Could! I think I can! I think I can I think I can!

I mustn't give up!

The Story of the Fatter One

(Sylvester's Perspective)

This is me sleeping with my blanket. I like my blanket.

Hi. I'm Sylvester. I like to sleep. I also enjoy eating. Hi.
Sometimes I fall asleep in my bowl bowl. I mean food bowl. Heheh. My brother, Tweety, is so uptight. I'm so chillax, man. He's all like trying to fly and shiz but man I ain't about that life. People love me. Tweety's just jealous of me and my looks. Oops, I fell. Heheh. Some people think that I'm fat. I think they're right. But hey, I'm in shape! Round is a shape! Heheh.

Tweety's always pickin' on me. He thinks he better than me. He thinks he's cooler than me because he's older and already has wings. Well guess what? I don't care what he thinks. I think I'm awesome. Heheh. While Tweety's out flying around like he's a pigeon or something, I like to roll around on my belly like a penguin. Some people say I look like a penguin but I don't see it... Penguins are cool. I like penguins. Heheh. 

I must go now. My People need me. Time to save the world! (And by that I mean I'm hungry and I'm doing the world a favor by eating. Heheh).


A story similar in a chickens perspective, where I got my inspiration: http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/560925/the-story-of-ichabod-from-ichabods-perspective