my sweet Tilly just died

[luvmyhens]

Tilly has been a wonderful, lovable girl, she pecks my leg so I can sit on the bench and that is her cue to hop on my lap for special love. I really don't know what happened she was fine this morning, at 12:00 I gave them some lettuce to snack on with their lay mash, and at 4:00 I found her still not moving. Then she became very lythargic and she died at 7:30. I really don't know what happened, she didn't have a bad smell from her beak while she was alive, only when she died she smelled very bad. I can't stop crying, I have never had a chicken that loved to be petted as much and Tilly, and she loved to sit on my lap for as long I could spare the time. My other 2 hens aren't really that close to me, so WHY TILLY????

Anyway, I wanted to write to tell you, if anyone would understand my grief I knew my backyard chicken family would.

 

[FlyHigher]

really sorry for your loss...

 

[PerfectPoultry]

I know EXACTLY how you feel... I had a breeding pair of Japanese bantams, but they didn't mean as much to me as my other birds until one day I was shutting a gate and Renji ( my Japanese bantam roo ) decided to stick his head in it and It compressed his skull a little. He started doing that Spazz thing that they do when they die and I grabbed him and held him still and noticed how much he actually meant to me. I sat for about an hour crying with his little body in the run. And his mate died a week ago.

 

[cowcreekgeek]

Tilly has been a wonderful, lovable girl, she pecks my leg so I can sit on the bench and that is her cue to hop on my lap for special love. I really don't know what happened she was fine this morning, at 12:00 I gave them some lettuce to snack on with their lay mash, and at 4:00 I found her still not moving. Then she became very lythargic and she died at 7:30. I really don't know what happened, she didn't have a bad smell from her beak while she was alive, only when she died she smelled very bad. I can't stop crying, I have never had a chicken that loved to be petted as much and Tilly, and she loved to sit on my lap for as long I could spare the time. My other 2 hens aren't really that close to me, so WHY TILLY????

Anyway, I wanted to write to tell you, if anyone would understand my grief I knew my backyard chicken family would.

Although I don't recall shedding any tears over our own chickens, I have shed a few for those that have suffered greatly the loss of thier own ... I'm truly sorry that you're in so much pain.

Many of my favorites were among those I've lost, which is why I attempt to use my armor of logic, so as to better guard my heart; to love that I have chickens, rather than to allow myself to love them individually ... refuse to give 'em individual names, but some still peck their way through.

Although this spares me emotionally? It denies me from deriving so great of pleasure as your Tilly provided to you, which I most nearly envy, despite how greatly you're suffering for it.

You asked why her ... beyond the randomness to the order of things, and the fact that it rains on both the just and the unjust, God made the individual chicken fragile and temporary, so as to make flocks remarkably resilient, and more quickly able to adapt to their environment. By the miracle of His very design, He chose which is/isn't to survive ...

 

[PerfectPoultry]

 

[Crafty-Duck]

It truly is a sad sad shame that chickens have such short life spans!!! a huge draw back!!!!! I am new to owning chickens but I can already tell that when something happens to one of my girls I will be devastated

So sorry for your loss

 

[Suzie]

I am so very sorry for your loss and I do understand how it feels - I still cannot bring myself to post about my beloved favourite chicken who died earlier this year - I have experienced the wonderful companionship of my animals and the greatest sorrow when they pass on - the hurt is something that we have to learn to live with.

My feelings are that it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all

In time you will think of the great times you shared together .... mourn her loss and take comfort in the fact that she was such a character.... it is always too soon to lose one so precious..

Thinking of you

Suzie

 

[luvmyhens]

Thank you all for your words, they really mean a lot to me. I cherish each one !!!!!