How do I cope with the death of one of my hens ?

[Chicken poppy]

Im so sorry to hear the loss of your baby, its so hard to loose a beloved pet


im glad your doing better, congratulations on the chicks. sorry again

 

[CFLRanching]

Thank you so much, as to all the others. Im doing much better now. about 2 hours of crying and holding her, I wrapped her body in a little pretty red cloth and buried her in the spot she loved to be in when she was out and about. I put some flowers over the grave, and stayed there until it was dark.

It still hurts knowing she isn’t with me and her flock anymore, even my rooster Zuko and my other hen Zara aren’t acting the same now that shes gone. Zara is going broody much more often, and Zuko has grown aggressive towards everyone and now even me, which he has never done before. I try my best to calm him down whenever he starts acting up, with cuddles. Hes still a little teddy bear underneath all that tough guy demeanor.

But anyways, I am doing much better now, I recently got a few chicks and they really have cheered me up.

Just seeing this post. Sorry about your Silkie. They tend to go broody and all the feathers around their face gives them poor vision. We have had to deal with owls, hawks, snakes, skunks, racoons, opossums, and eagles getting our chickens and it's never never easy! You can't replace her but you can't blame yourself either. Chickens deal with all kinds of Apex predators (my daughter and I recently gave a presentation to kindergartners on chickens and they thought some predators were werewolves and super croc it was adorable).

I am glad you use BYC as an outlet. As the mom of a teen myself, I know how hard it can be to process things you can't control. One suggestion I have is exercising. And I know it can be hard sometimes to fit it in, but it creates a suge of feel good hormones called endorphins (my degree is in physical education so I'm not just making this up). I encourage you to get moving when you are needing an outlet. Loss is hard no doubt (especially after reading your second post about the cat's return). Even if you just go on a bike ride or a brisk walk, shoot some hoops, jump rope, pushups, anything to physically get your body moving it will help to give you some of those endorphins, and hopefully help you cope. Praying you don't have any more trouble with predators and your chickens, but as another said, raising them is trial and error. You'll get there, hang in there.

 

[Anime2lover]

Today I am traumatized and heartbroken. I have found my baby Silkie’s dead body under a shed floor.

I raised 4 bantam chicks from TSC , 2 of them were red Cochins, one was a black one I don’t remember the name but he did get killed by a fox and we never found his body, and 1 Silkie hen.

Here is a recent photo I took of her.

View attachment 3046190

Her name was Lulu. She was going to turn a year old in May this year. I held her in my arms when she was only a tiny fluffy chick and today I held her cold, bloody, half-severed body close to my heart and cried my lungs out as loud as I could. A female cat that we used to call “dear” to us had killed Lulu while she was trying her best to protect and hatch a single egg which I found that was never even fertile. She was so determined to hatch it. She sat on it for about 3 weeks.

This is her sitting on multiple infertile eggs.

View attachment 3046199

Lulu was my sweet girl who never denied a cuddle when I came outside to see her small flock. She loved when I picked her up and hugged her. And now she’s gone. My baby girl is gone. I’m not mentally stable and I haven’t been for quite a few years. So part of me is going “Go batshit! Go bonkers! Kill and butcher and eat that cat and take revenge!” and the other half is going “You totally failed to prevent the death of her. You deserve to be hurt in every way, its time to reach for the razor blades again.” I can’t process the overwhelming pain this has brought upon me.

It’s April 1st and I wish this was all just a bad prank but its not. I’m devastated and empty. I feel so numb and I feel like I can’t talk anymore. Please help me learn how to not make this the reason I die.

I think it helps to tell people about their life.