I am worried that my precious Caroline will not make it to her 8th hatch day in January. She has been turning dark in her face over the past couple of weeks. And today, we see that she is guzzling a lot of water, something many of them do at the end, not sure why they do it, but I've seen it so many times, overloading the crop with water just prior to their deaths. All summer, her pendulous, sluggish crop did very well with her eating so many tomatoes we threw to her (thank you to Pine Grove for the tip about tomato juice and crops). But, now, I fear her old heart is failing her.
Caroline is my last hatchery hen, not one of the originals, who are, of course, long gone, but from the following year's first batch of newbies. I bought her and Miranda from an Ideal shipment at the feedstore when Suede hatched to put in with that group because a local man always had Brahmas roaming through his yard in town and I fell in love with the Buffs. We call Caroline the Queen of Everything because no matter what group she is put into, she takes over and becomes head hen without much protest from any other hen. She is most definitely the queen of the Old Hens' Retirement Home & Hospice. And today, we will be adding three 10 week old chicksters to their coop, which usually serves as a way station for youngsters whose broody mama has abandoned them and who are too small/young to go into the main flock with a rooster and super territorial hens. I hope her passing is peaceful. She deserves her rest-salt of the earth, this one is.
Caroline with other residents of the old folks' home, plus the chicks who will be "educated" by the grandmas:
The Tiny Terrorist. She's laying currently. Can't believe she'll be 5 yrs old in April.
Becca has been going on the nest w/o producing an egg, so no idea what's happening with her. She'll be 8 yrs old herself in March.
Panda hasn't seemed to feel well of late, either, though she is molting. She's 6 1/2.
The white chicks are 10 weeks old. The barred male is almost a week younger. They can stay a few weeks until they start showing interest in mating then the boys have to get out of there before Amanda gets hurt-she can't walk to get away from them.
His exact age was unknown, however experts I spoke to/showed him to thought 7 was the figure ( he had a very hard life before I rescued him) . He started having breathing issues due to poor circulation, while it seemed to fix he stayed purple, we expected him gone in less than a month, he battled on though, constantly heart attack purple, he eventually stopped crowing and mating and I knew it wouldn't be long. He was in retirement and could do as he pleased, he had no male competition, and any roosters on the other side of the chickenwired deer fence( boardering mums property) decided he was of no threat. A funny story behind that was one of the big Buff rock roos belonging to my mum was out wandering and spied Brucester, He came running up to fight/challenge him, he had all his hackles up doing his thing to be intimidating, and Brucester, well he was fast asleep against the fence. In the end the BR gave up and wandered away while Brucester slept on.
