A year for Maggie (and RC)
Warning: long post.
The last couple of weeks has been an important milestone for Maggie and @BY Bob said it was OK for me to mark the occasion here.
On September 18, 2020 I found this in the nest box.
I had no idea what it was and no idea who laid it. Everyone was acting normal and all cameras were deployed monitoring rodents and other, scarier, visitors.
I did research and learned that it was a lash egg – a sign of serious and long standing infection in the reproductive tract. I also learned that it is invariably fatal with the maximum life expectancy of less than 6 months.
I confirmed it was Maggie who laid it. She had stopped laying real eggs and laid one more lash egg a few days later.
Off she went to the vet.
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Because of Covid I wasn’t allowed in with her but she apparently wandered around the vet’s office investigating everything while she waited for him. The vet-tech was rather taken with her and fed her the blueberries I had brought.
The vet was very kind but confirmed what everyone else had told me which was that she would not live long. He offered to euthanize her but agreed with my view that it was a bit premature as she still had quality of life. I felt reassured that he would be able to put her out of her misery when the time came.
He also educated me about production breeds who are not really expected to live past 2 years. I spent quite a while really upset and furious about that and I still am.
Everyone on this thread was very kind and supportive. @BY Bob encouraged me not to give up on Maggie and at the same time helped me be prepared for the worst.
And I resolved to spend as much time as possible with Maggie and make sure her remaining time was as wonderful as possible.
Maggie visibly declined. She started molting and wouldn’t eat anything that wasn’t alive. I dug for worms, I trapped beetles, and I bought live mealy worms to tempt her to eat. I provided heaps of leaves so she could pick through them for bugs.
Slowly she started to develop new feathers
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And to share in some treats
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And then much to my surprise, on January 23rd – 4 months after the lash egg - she laid a normal egg. I think nobody was more surprised than @BY Bob who posted:
“She successfully laid an egg today!?!”
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-of-our-flock.1286630/page-3059#post-23891234
So, I am marking this week as one year since Maggie got her death sentence.
I feel she has had a good chicken year.
She dug some deep holes.
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She explored snow.
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She shouted at me.
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She spent time with chicken friends.
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She sunbathed (a lot).
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She helped with construction projects.
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She shouted at me some more.
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She got in my face.
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She posed with her left side
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She posed with her right side
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She ate ice cream
She sunbathed some more
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And she cooled off by dunking her wattles.
Today, a full year later, she is still shouting at me, she is still in my face, and she is the undisputed queen of the long grass.
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* * *
Thank you all for indulging me in this post and joining me to celebrate Maggie's gift and mine - a whole year of chicken fun together.
Maggie
