• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Traditional Cooking School by GNOWFGLINS

Dish up the simple joy of healthy, down-home foods your family will LOVE… tonight.

Join 12,000+ families served since 2010!

  • Join Now
  • About
    • About Wardee & TCS
    • Our Team
    • FAQs & Help
    • Contact
  • Recipes
  • Blog
    • Recipes
    • Archives
  • Podcast
    • #AskWardee
    • Know Your Food with Wardee (retired)
  • Shop
    • Bible-Based Cooking Program
    • Print Textbooks
    • eBooks & eCourses
    • Recommended Tools & Supplies
    • More Books We Love
    • Complete Idiot’s Guide To Fermenting Foods
      • Errata
  • Login
You are here: Home » Raising Food » Livestock & Critters » 5 Lessons from Loss on the Homestead

Make a healthy dinner in 30 minutes or less... while spending $0 extra! Click here to get the Eat God's Way “30-Minute Skillet Dishes” worksheet + videos FREE!

5 Lessons from Loss on the Homestead

We only recommend products and services we wholeheartedly endorse. This post may contain special links through which we earn a small commission if you make a purchase (though your price is the same).

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

5 Lessons from Loss on the Homestead | You hear it again and again in homesteading circles... Loss is inevitable. And that makes caring for any living thing emotionally challenging. Can these hard times teach us anything? Difficult as it is, the answer is yes. | TraditionalCookingSchool.com

You hear it again and again in homesteading circles…

Loss is inevitable.

And that makes caring for any living thing emotionally challenging.

Even though we try hard to avoid it, it’s hard to not to become attached to the animals we care for.

You’ve nurtured them, and they’ve looked to you for sustenance and support. If one dies, it’s difficult not to grieve.

When we first began to raise chickens, I knew that I needed to be prepared to lose a few. For those first few years however, we had pretty good success. All our chicks survived their infancy and went on to become healthy laying hens.

We continued to add to our flock and were blessed with more healthy chickens. Then, this past summer things took a turn for the worse. Over the course of just a few months, we lost six beloved chickens to one thing or another.

At first, these losses were somewhat easy to bear.

During the nightly routine of locking up the coop and taking a head count we’d notice we were one short. It was sad, but to be expected.

Then two became ill. When it was clear they weren’t going to recover, they had to be euthanized. Another sad loss, but again to be expected. We took comfort in the fact we had done the best we could to keep them comfortable right up to the very end.

But then, we lost our favorite mother hen. I wasn’t sure what exactly was wrong with her. She seemed to be suffering from a very minor leg injury. I could tell she was uncomfortable, but she was still eating and drinking so I was confident she’d recover.

I gathered her and her two offspring together and placed her in a separate pen where she could recuperate. I watched her carefully and although she seemed tired, she continued to eat and drink just fine. One afternoon, though, she collapsed suddenly and was gone just like that — leaving behind her two sweet chicks.

I don’t normally show emotion over the loss of a bird, but this time I cried.

One month later, I still feel a pang when I think of her. She had such a sweet spirit and was such a devoted, protective mother.

For the next few weeks after her death I reflected on her short life, the tiny lives of those chicks that she gave us, and her sudden passing.

I began to make a mental note of lessons that can be learned from losses like these, and here they are… 5 lessons from loss on the homestead:

1. Loss on the homestead helps us recognize that any life is precious regardless of how little or seemingly insignificant.

Be it a chicken or a small seedling, we should take the time to appreciate these tiny gifts of life and enjoy the moments  they give us.

I had an evening ritual of telling my mother hen what a good job she was doing and how much we appreciated her. I know she had no idea what I was saying, but it made me take a moment to appreciate her and her contribution to our homestead.

2. Loss on the homestead provides us with a learning experience as we evaluate anything we could have done differently.

Were there signs of illness we somehow missed until it was too late? Is my first aid kit lacking? If we lost our livestock to predators, do we need more secure fencing or housing?

3. Loss on the homestead teaches us to honor the circle of life.

Life moves in a cycle of birth, living, and death. While we should do all we can to keep those in our charge safe, the inevitable pattern of life and death means that we will experience loss. Keeping this cycle constantly in focus, we can more easily reflect on our own mortality and treasure the time we have with those we love.

4. Loss on the homestead gives us the opportunity to practice perseverance.

As tempting as it is to quit, it is so important to keep going, to learn from our experiences, and begin again. We can’t give up in the face of disappointments.

5. Loss on the homestead presents the opportunity for new beginnings.

Within days of losing our sweet mama hen, another two hens decided to go broody. Three weeks later they successfully rewarded us with six healthy chicks. The new life felt all too sweet after going through the prior losses!

What losses have you experienced and what lessons have you learned from them?

We only recommend products and services we wholeheartedly endorse. This post may contain special links through which we earn a small commission if you make a purchase (though your price is the same).

Posted in: Livestock & Critters Raising Food Simple Living

About Jenny Cazzola

Tired of the stress of city life and motivated by a desire to be more self-sufficient, Jenny and her husband decided to trade life in the busy suburbs for life on a quiet country homestead. In the fall of 2012, they moved to an acreage in rural Northeastern Oklahoma where they are learning to live off the land and working to establish a small home grown heirloom produce business. On her blog Black Fox Homestead, Jenny writes about their transition from city to country life, offers tips on natural gardening, recipes from her kitchen, and ideas for frugal, simple living. She and her husband currently share their homestead with four shih-tzus and eight growing Rhode Island Red chicks; but she hopes to see ducks, dairy goats, and possibly a cow in her future.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Hi and Welcome!

I’m Wardee Harmon and I help Christian families who know they should eat healthy but are tired of complicated, time-consuming, weird-tasting, and unsustainable “healthy” diets…

…who want to look and feel better, save time and money, and have more energy for enjoying family life and serving Him fully!… like I was. Click here for more…

Recently on the Blog

  • Fizzy Apple Cider Switchel (VAD)
  • VitaClay Review & Buyer’s Guide
  • How to Make Healthy Cookies #AskWardee 006
  • Bean and Barley Soup (Instant Pot, Stove Top)
  • Soaked Spelt Banana Bread (VAD)
  • Ancient Grains 101
  • How to Heal Digestive Issues Naturally (Leaky Gut, SIBO, IBS, Celiac & more)
  • How To Meal Plan In 4 Easy Steps (KYF103)
  • Debunking 4 Sourdough Myths (& How To Overcome Them)
  • How To Use A Pressure Cooker 101

Recently Commented

  • Lori Gintner on The Connection Between Mental Illness & Candida (+ why you need more than anti-fungals)
  • Tiranga on Homemade Sauerkraut In A Stoneware Crock
  • ronald ryan on 10 Tips For Using A Gas Grill As An Oven
  • Julia on How To Make Sour Cream
  • KM on The Best Sourdough English Muffins (Traditional Recipe)
  • Kathryn on Ginger-Lemon Mocktail: The Perfect Summer Drink
  • Anonymous on Anatomy of a Blended Soup

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Before Footer

g-NOWF-glinz

…are what we eat! God’s Natural, Organic, Whole Foods, Grown Locally, In Season.

We love working with other Christian families who love good food and want to eat according to God’s design…

Not only because we believe it’s the healthiest way, but because we want to give Him glory for creating good food as the best medicine!

Learn more about GNOWFGLINS here…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOcH27DM1dI

Eat God’s Way Cooking Program

Our Eat God’s Way cooking program is for Christian families who know they should eat healthy but are tired of complicated, time-consuming, weird-tasting, and unsustainable “healthy” diets…

…who want to look and feel better, save time and money, and have more energy for enjoying family life and serving Him fully!

Join 12,000+ families served since 2010! Learn more here…

Copyright © 2025 Traditional Cooking School by GNOWFGLINS • About • Help • Privacy • Partners