Sorry for your loss, don't beat yourself up. If only our chickens would just speak up and tell us when something is wrong when it's happening things would be so much better.Its been a very sad day here at the farm. I woke up and headed out to do the chicken tending and found Faraday40 beautiful Blizzard passed away. I had brought her inside due to the extreme cold and I didn't like the way she was looking. She felt thin and was sleeping in the coop a lot, even during the day. The rooster damage from this summer was really not getting better even though she had pin feathers.
I picked her up and cradled her for a few minutes. She was still warm and had only passed no more than an hour before. After I had put her back, I felt like something was crawling all over my arms and side of face. I grabbed a flashlight and inspected her body. She was ridden with mites. I feel horrible I missed this on this sweet girl! I cancelled going to church and immediately dusted every chicken. I saw no signs of mites on anyone else.
I didn't have a lot of pictures of the sweetheart, but here's what I have. I'm sure Faraday40 will have a lot more.
Trying to be a good surrogate mom to a pair of slo's babies that came with her.
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We've had horrible weather for infestations with it being forties and rainy a few weeks ago, that's when things really take hold.