Frightful became egg bound....

[Reurra]

I had to dispatch Frightful today. She became egg bound and was slowly getting worse each day. I read everything I could about egg bound hens, but nothing i did seemed to help. She just became less and less thrifty.

She always had problems when laying. Weird eggs, over sized eggs, thin shelled, sometimes wrinkly. I gave her vitamins, calcium and everything I could, and she just always seemed on the edge of unhealthy. So I let her go.

I hope I made the right choice. I will miss her. She was a sweetheart.

 

[Fred's Hens]

She appeared to be a Red Sex Link, a mix that, sadly, has a bit of reputation for such difficulties, which seem to increase as they age. Yes, suffering must be ended, as difficult as it is to do. You did the right thing.

 

[Reurra]

Hi Fred, you are right, she was a red sex link. Im not sure what she was crossed with. I bought her out of the back of a truck. A scraggly old man was selling them from crammed crates. I bought her and Crackers and brought them home. They have been spoiled ever since.

Crackers is very robust, but Frightful has always been a moody layer and very delicate. She was so scared the first time I brought her home. It took her a few weeks to trust me enough to touch her, but over the last few weeks she has been with us, she would let me or the kids pick her up and carry her around. She was a very bossy little hen to the other girls, but with us she was always curious, outgoing and gentle. She always brought a smile and I always looked forward to her greeting me in the morning. I would open the coop door and there she would be with her beak pressed against the wire clucking and complaining to be let out. As soon as I opened the pen door, both of them would charge out like rodeo broncos and make a mad dash for the dandy lion patches just outside the door.

She was a fun bird.