Heckin' Peckin' Hens (and Rooster)

[TwoCrows]

We had a loss today. I found Luna deceased in the nest box tonight next to our broody speckled sussex. She was perfectly fine this morning around 10am. I remember looking at her ruffled back feathers as she ate their daily morning scratch treats thinking I needed to get on finishing the hen aprons for her. She must have passed sometime around noon because I didn't check the hens again until I got home around 8pm and she was stiff as a board. She had her head curled around and her back legs were splayed behind her so I'm not sure if it was an egg issue or heart attack. It was a shock to find her and it took me a second to realize she was gone because the last thing I expected to find was a deceased hen in the nest boxes.

We buried her next to our little peach tree.
RIP Luna the silver deathlayer
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Oh I am so sorry she is gone. Never easy on the heart.

Alrighty, so a lot has happened since I posted last. It took me a bit of time to recover from the shock of Luna's death, but we're back!

We found out a turkey hatched a whole batch of turkey chicks(?) in our front yard, somehow without us discovering her. In fact, the only reason I discovered this is because as I was walking back toward the house after feeding the horses, I heard some type of angry clucking and turned around just in time to see my poor miniature schnauzers getting chased by a very angry momma turkey.

I wished I had caught that on video, but alas, the moment was missed.

Spot the turkey:
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That's right, you can't. That's apparently how she aluded us for 28 days. I'm pretty sure she nested under our horse trailer.

In other news, Wilna has not laid an egg in 2 weeks. After Luna passed, I was worried maybe Wilna had something going on too, but I think she just decided she deserved a break. Here she is being smug about it:
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I also added two new pullets to the flock:
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First up is this lovely fibro lady. The person selling her to me said she was a white silkie, black cochin cross. I wasn't too interested in adding in silkie lines, but when I saw this girl I broke down.

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Next is a frosted white legbar (or that's what we think). My brother-in-law purchased chicks from C-A-L Ranch labeled as ISA Browns. Well, Definitely not. Just no. Not even close. Everything about her appearance matches with a frost white legbar. Not sure how C-A-L Ranch got their hands on those, but here we are. Guess we'll know for sure when she starts laying. I traded for her with a sexlink chick I purchased from the same seller as the fibro mixed hen. Ironically he also sold that chick as an ISA brown, but I'm guessing she's actually a golden comet or some other sexlink because the skin color and feather color is wrong for an ISA. Or maybe not a sexlink at all because I noticed she has a black feather on one wing. Who knows. Looks like my brother-in-law is doomed to never having that elusive ISA brown chicken...

Anyways, these two need names so feel free to pitch in!

And here's some spam of the chick flock:
Silverudd's blue pullet chick, Jiminy:
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The mystery sexlink that will be given to my brother-in-law:
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Some silverudd's blue, black copper marans, blue ameraucana, and a random barnyard mix chick on the left:
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Silverudd's blue cockerel chick, Tangled:
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Gorgeous flock!