My ancient rescue hen, Lilly

Yesterday my family and I went to visit my grandparents. (on my dad's side) My Pawpaw's health is failing rapidly and he wanted to see us before he passed away. He's always been a very gruff man. He's an ex-sailor so gather from that what you will, but he has quite a soft spot for animals. He's had chickens on and off since I was very young, and was down to one 10 year old ( ) hen. When we got there I noticed a big cardboard box on the front porch, taped shut, with a few holes poked in it.



Right about then my Grandma came out and said "You like chickens, don't you?"
"Yes Ma'am..."
"Your Grandpa has one in this box. *laugh* The cat tried to eat her a few days ago so he put her in here to be safe."
"Oh, really?"
(enter Pawpaw)
"Elayna!" (I did mention he was gruff)
"Yes Sir?"
"Come look at this."
"Yes Sir."
He opened the box and inside was a reasonably pretty barred hen sitting on a couple towels, a bowl of dry oatmeal and white bread, a bowl of water, a giant mound of poo, and enough bugs to kill something with.


If I lifted up that top towel it would reveal all the poo and bugs. It was disgusting!
I didn't really know what to say so I just said "She's really pretty." and reached in to pet her.
"You can have her if you have room to haul her."
Happy, happy, joy, joy! I tried to to heave a sigh of relief and bust into a celebration dance.
Instead I just said "I'd love to have her. Thank you."
At that point I would have given her my seat and ridden in a car top carrier the hour and a half drive back if it meant I could take her home.
I'm not sure my dad was too thrilled, but I explained the situation and he said I could have her.
When we were leaving I loaded up my new hen and went inside to say goodbye to my grandparents. My Pawpaw looked at me and said
"Now, don't you forget that chick."
"She's already loaded Pawpaw, I won't forget her."
"Take good care of her now. She's an old friend of mine."
I assured him she was in good hands and I would take very good care of her.
I got her home and put her in a nice, warm kennel for the night, because I didn't have a tractor ready for her.


She was really calm. I petted her and held her for a few minutes, Then I went out into the driveway and burned the box.




I fixed her some electrolyte water and some laying pellets/fermented scratch grains, and let her settle in for the night. This morning I readied a tractor for her and put her out in it. I don't know how long it had been since she saw the outdoors properly, but I would guess it was at least 3 days by the amount of poo and bugs in her box.
"ERMAGERD! GRASS!"

 

So sorry I haven't responded! I have been so busy lately. It's that time of year, I guess. The hen is doing very well. She is either going into or coming out of a moult, because her tail feathers are all funny right now. I won't know how well she lays for quite a while I think, between the moult and the move. She's gotta be pretty stressed right now. I'll post some updated pics ASAP, but it wouldn't hurt to remind me. She's pretty skittish as far as touch goes, but she's not afraid to bust out of her tractor and demand food when I don't come soon enough. She's quite pretty and seems healthy, though I don't think she would have lived so long is she was prone to illness.

Does anyone know if it would be safe to put a hen of her age with roosters? Would the mating be too much for her? My mom is worried that going from no companion at all, to all the sudden lots of companions, 8 or so being boys chasing you around, might be a little stressful for such an old girl. What do you think? Maybe we should keep her with only hens?