Sdwd

[Cetawin]

Cyn I am so sorry. Lady your integrity is not questioned by anyone with half a brain. Look at WHO and WHAT is questioning it. I am sorry about your girls and I sure hope Gypsy snaps out of it. Amanda and Delilah and trying to outdo each other with this leg business. Delilah's is really big in that one area and it turns inward just slightly. Silly girls.

I lost my Leaya today. Delilah has been guarding her for the past couple of days and this morning Leaya was lying on the floor with Delilah right there with her. I cooked some scrambled eggs and took to them and they both ate and drank but Delilah would not leave Leaya and she chased everyone away who got too close to her. I continued doing chicken chores and checked on them several more times and an hour or so later I went to check on them and when I opened the door to step outside Delilah met me so I knew Leaya was gone.

The dynamics of this entire experience has really amazed me and put me in awe....I feel sorta special to have seen it. The way Delilah protected Leaya and shoved everyone away even though Delilah did not like Leaya and always thunked her, she did her head hen duty and she stood guard over a dying hen. And Lancelot and Hector both had to see her body...the way they looked at her and then into her face was so sweet. Hector actually nudged Leaya's beak. All of the girls came to see Leaya and look at her face before they went walking away. Really just a heart tugging moment. To see the expression change on Lancelot's face from worry as to why I was carrying Leaya to realization that she was gone....just put a tear in my eye.

I hate internal laying issues...hate it hate it hate it.

 

[chickened]

Hope she's having fun.


I'm going to say something out of the blue that has nothing to do with SDWD just to say it to someone. I am sick of having my integrity called into question by people whose own needs some polishing. Just a mini-rant for the day.

It's hot, my back was hurt somehow, Sunny is dying, Amanda has a twisted leg, Gypsy isn't acting well, I need to have someone buy my D'Anver pair to get Aubrey out of that coop so I can put some older hens in there and not have them hassled, etc, etc, etc. There's always an etcetera, isn't there? Sigh.

If someone is calling out your integrity they most likely have none themselves. Don't let it get to you.

 

[speckledhen]

Thank you, Ladyhawk and Ed. Still, when someone wants to punch me in the stomach, that's usually the way it happens. It's one thing I hold dear.


Sunny is gone. Riley is gone. Both died during the night. Sunny was expected, being a hatchery hen, my last original, 6 1/2 years old and steadily going downhill over the past couple of months. Riley's death was expected, but just not last night.

Riley was almost 3 years old and had been suffering from Egg Yolk Peritonitis; massive penicillin temporily kicked out the infection and dissipated her huge swollen abdomen, but she was still very thin and never regained her energy fully and of course, there is probably a cheesy mass in her oviduct.

We also found Riley dead under the place where Isaac roosts. She never roosts in that room with him and his smaller group, but must have felt odd and wanted to be near him. She died about 3:30 a.m. because I heard him make the oddest alarm calls-semi-cackles, but the fan in our bedroom was so loud in my ear, couldn't tell what it was exactly, just knew it sounded off. I did jump up and turn the fan off and heard very unsettled sounds from the hens, but then they all went silent. When I felt her body, I could tell that her abdomen was filling up again. She would have been 3 years old next month and was easily the most beautiful hen I owned. We'll bury them together.

My dear girls we will miss so much:

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

Cyn, I am so sorry for your losses

Thay were beautiful girls and I know you did the best you could for them.

 

[speckledhen]

Thank you, Laura. I always do, but it's never enough, it seems.

 

[crazyhen]

We love them so much but their lives seem so transitory. So sorry for your loss.
Cyn, have you noticed a difference in the lifespans of your hatchery versus pure breed group? How about the egg laying problems?
Sorry again for your loses Gloria Jean

 

[speckledhen]

All except two who died from EYP and/or internal laying have been direct from the hatchery.

Olivia and Riley were the only two who were not direct hatchery hens, but they were hatchery descendants. Olivia's mother was a hatchery McMurray BR hen and Riley's grandsire, Hawkeye, was a McMurray BR rooster.

Riley's sire, Dutch, was the son of Hawkeye with one of my Ideal Hatchery hens, Lexie. Lexie made it to about 5 years old and died from ovarian cancer, I think-there was evidence of internal laying and fluid in her abdomen, but not to a great extent. Her mother, Charlotte, was a breeder Ameraucana, but Char died at 4 years old of unknown causes, not related to anything reproductive as she was laying the very week of her death or the week prior, not sure which.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

I finally finished the baby quilts. I will never again make one from all flannel

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

And one of the brooder boxes Bryan made......

 

[speckledhen]

The brooder boxes and the quilts are wonderful!


ETA: Oops, my mouse locked. Was going to say that those brooders are what I want to build into the front area of the bantam coop to replace the brooder that is there now, which was moved from the other coop and is really too wide for the space. Those will work MUCH better and give more room.