Big Bertha
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Any images that depict illegal acts or subject manner will be removed. You retain rights to your photos but by posting them here you also are agreeing to giving rights to PTO to remove or alter these pictures (size adjustment for example) as needed. To maintain memory usage at a low level we are entertaining deleting photos after a certain time period which at this point will be determined by the time when we run out of data storage capacity.
- windwalkingwolf
- Poultry Guru - pullet level
- Posts: 3567
- Joined: Sat Dec 12, 2015 1:31 pm
- Location: Frankville, Ontario
- x 4899
Big Bertha
The last of my hatchery birds, Big Bertha the Barred Rock. Two months short of 14 years old, she was a big fat girl all her life and laid BIG eggs. She slowed down as she aged, of course, but every summer I would get a few from her. She would never win any beauty contests, nor even any personality contests, but she always held a top spot in the pecking order without being cruel. She was tough as nails, and even as she slowed in her old age, not much tried to mess with her under threat of stink-eye! During the past few days, she'd been unusually tired and breathing a bit heavily, and former enemies were now gathering around her to keep her warm. She relished the attention rather than driving them away! Yesterday morning I noted her comb was purplish and determined it was time for her long life to come to an end at evening chores...but she made the decision for me, and passed quietly in her sleep during the day. I was not particularly attached to her: she was a crusty old gal who only gave me maybe a handful of chicks in her life...but she had coop cred, and thanks to her son Boris who she outlived, I now have several of her grand daughters about to lay eggs for the first time :) I felt her passing deserved a tip of the hat. Bertha!!
Bertha and Princess What a Hussy Queen of all she surveys This half of the roost is MINE Googles and Bertha
Bertha and Princess What a Hussy Queen of all she surveys This half of the roost is MINE Googles and Bertha
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- WLLady
- Stringy Old Soup Pot Hen of a Moderator
- Posts: 5616
- Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2015 9:55 pm
- Location: Rural near West Lorne and Glencoe
- x 8538
Big Bertha
Hear hear!
Those old gals are really something!
Those old gals are really something!
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Pet quality wheaten/blue wheaten ameraucanas, welsummers, barred rocks, light brown leghorns; Projects on the go: rhodebars, welbars
- Ontario Chick
- Poultry Guru
- Posts: 5404
- Joined: Sat Dec 12, 2015 10:12 am
- Location: Carp - West Ottawa
- x 9639
- TomK
- Stringy Old Chicken
- Posts: 1851
- Joined: Sat Dec 12, 2015 9:38 am
- Location: Lovely Rideau Lakes Township
- x 2535
Big Bertha
Gotta love those Rocks..here's to Bertha..
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If you don't plant the tree, you will never have the fruit...
- Killerbunny
- Poultry Guru - total zen level
- Posts: 7887
- Joined: Sat Dec 12, 2015 12:04 pm
- Location: Brockville
- x 10179
Big Bertha
Cheers Bertha. A very good life.
Nice to see the pic with Princess too.
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Beltsville Small White turkeys.
Mutt chickens for eggs
RIP Stephen the BSW Tom and my coffee companion.
RIP Lucky the Very Brave Splash Wyandotte rooster.
RIP little Muppet the rescue cat.
Big Bertha
I love it when they endear themselves to you just by being themselves and surviving to such a ripe old age!
RIP Bertha.
RIP Bertha.
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Retired dairy shepherd and cheesemaker and former keeper of a menagerie of chickens and Pencilled Turkeys, now owned by three cats and a border collie x Australian shepherd who keeps me fit and on my toes!
- Colleen Kinzie
- Free Ranging
- Posts: 829
- Joined: Sat Dec 12, 2015 9:29 am
- Location: Cambridge Ontario
- x 836