Ribh's D'Coopage

[RoyalChick]

My wild girl is no more.
I am devastated.
Some time Saturday night she left her perch. I found her Sunday morning wet & lethargic behind the nesting boxes, picked her up & brought her up to the house for some vitamins before popping her in a quiet crate.
I was preaching, so busy getting ready but ducked downstairs to check on her before leaving. She had already quietly departed.
There had been no sign anything @ all was wrong apart from Saturday's bloody egg but she seemed her usual feisty self.
The irony is I had spent the last 2 days raising the fence height to thwart her escapes & knowing how much she loved to forage had raked up big piles of leaves so she had something to entertain her in her new confinement. She never got to enjoy them. The piles are still there as no~one else enjoys them as Ha'penny did.
She was somewhere round 9 or 10 years old, still laying regularly.​

View attachment 4220356

Every year she made @ least one attempt to sit & she always found a really good hiding place to nest.
She always had a super large clutch under her.
When she finally got to hatch chicks she was a deplorable mother.​

View attachment 4220358

She was the escape artiste supreme. If she couldn't go under it she went over it. If she couldn't go over it she went through it.​

View attachment 4220362

I am already missing her terribly. I miss the way she looked @ me when I called her home. I miss the impertinent swagger as she meekly trotted to the gate & waited for me to open it though we both knew she was quite capable of going over it. I miss her independence & her crazy woman antics.​

Slán abhaile, my lovely.​

​

Oh no. I am so sorry she is gone. I always loved hearing her stories and seeing pictures of her.
She was a lovely, crazy lady. I think we will all miss her.
These are for you @Ribh

 

[notabitail]

My wild girl is no more.
I am devastated.
Some time Saturday night she left her perch. I found her Sunday morning wet & lethargic behind the nesting boxes, picked her up & brought her up to the house for some vitamins before popping her in a quiet crate.
I was preaching, so busy getting ready but ducked downstairs to check on her before leaving. She had already quietly departed.
There had been no sign anything @ all was wrong apart from Saturday's bloody egg but she seemed her usual feisty self.
The irony is I had spent the last 2 days raising the fence height to thwart her escapes & knowing how much she loved to forage had raked up big piles of leaves so she had something to entertain her in her new confinement. She never got to enjoy them. The piles are still there as no~one else enjoys them as Ha'penny did.
She was somewhere round 9 or 10 years old, still laying regularly.​

View attachment 4220356

Every year she made @ least one attempt to sit & she always found a really good hiding place to nest.
She always had a super large clutch under her.
When she finally got to hatch chicks she was a deplorable mother.​

View attachment 4220358

She was the escape artiste supreme. If she couldn't go under it she went over it. If she couldn't go over it she went through it.​

View attachment 4220362

I am already missing her terribly. I miss the way she looked @ me when I called her home. I miss the impertinent swagger as she meekly trotted to the gate & waited for me to open it though we both knew she was quite capable of going over it. I miss her independence & her crazy woman antics.​

Slán abhaile, my lovely.​

​

 

[MaryJanet]

So sorry for your loss Ribh. She had a lot of character and verve.

 

[BDutch]

Slán abhaile wild girl

Neart le do chailliúint, Ribh. She had a long and wonderful life with you.

 

[LozzyR]

My wild girl is no more.
I am devastated.
Some time Saturday night she left her perch. I found her Sunday morning wet & lethargic behind the nesting boxes, picked her up & brought her up to the house for some vitamins before popping her in a quiet crate.
I was preaching, so busy getting ready but ducked downstairs to check on her before leaving. She had already quietly departed.
There had been no sign anything @ all was wrong apart from Saturday's bloody egg but she seemed her usual feisty self.
The irony is I had spent the last 2 days raising the fence height to thwart her escapes & knowing how much she loved to forage had raked up big piles of leaves so she had something to entertain her in her new confinement. She never got to enjoy them. The piles are still there as no~one else enjoys them as Ha'penny did.
She was somewhere round 9 or 10 years old, still laying regularly.​

View attachment 4220356

Every year she made @ least one attempt to sit & she always found a really good hiding place to nest.
She always had a super large clutch under her.
When she finally got to hatch chicks she was a deplorable mother.​

View attachment 4220358

She was the escape artiste supreme. If she couldn't go under it she went over it. If she couldn't go over it she went through it.​

View attachment 4220362

I am already missing her terribly. I miss the way she looked @ me when I called her home. I miss the impertinent swagger as she meekly trotted to the gate & waited for me to open it though we both knew she was quite capable of going over it. I miss her independence & her crazy woman antics.​

Slán abhaile, my lovely.​

​

Fly high sweet Ha’penny.

 

[Ribh]

With the passing of Ha'penny I expected Wrold to step into the vacant lead hen position but Wrold promptly decided to go broody. I have given her 3 eggs. Sadly I have none of Ha'penny's. Alpia is a sweetie but not interested. India would be next in line but she is still really young, Chavi, for some reason is an outsider & Tootsie tiny. With Henry it may simply morph into a more egalitarian society​

Wrold on the left, with her sister, Alpia.​

 

[Ribh]

Thank you, everyone for your kind thoughts about Ha'penny.

​

 

[drstratton]

It will be interesting to see if the girls are just waiting for Wrold. Roosters do add a different dynamic. But, there was still a hierarchy amongst my hens.

 

[Ribh]

It will be interesting to see if the girls are just waiting for Wrold. Roosters do add a different dynamic. But, there was still a hierarchy amongst my hens.

Perhaps... Henry is very taken with Alpia. As a non-chook I see that all my super strong personalities are now gone and what's left are sweet, non-aggressive, non-dominant girls. The flock is now mostly really, really young. World, & Alpia are the oldest ~5/6. Chavi is 3/4. Everyone else, including Henry, is only 12-18 months. Plus Ha'penny was really predator aware. She was better than Henry. She was a great forager. Wrold & Alpia have benefited from that.

I have a very different group to what it was even 12 months ago. My largest hen is an Aracuna/Silkie cross. All bantams of one sort or another & 1/2 frizzles. I am used to having several really strong personalities amongst my girls & lots of smarts. This lot isn't dumb but they don't have the Ha'penny sort of smarts & being rural Australia we have plenty of killers around. My resident currawong is super territorial & a killer. She hasn't harassed my birds but she has dropped some hefty sized kills in my yard. Saw her, so I know it was her & she is nesting just now so there will be young soon. She nicks eggs too. Then there are the crows, ravens, magpies, kookaburras, & the larger butcher birds [so named for a reason] ~ all predatory & can take out even quite large prey. Without Ha'penny my flock is much more vulnerable.

 

[drstratton]

Perhaps... Henry is very taken with Alpia. As a non-chook I see that all my super strong personalities are now gone and what's left are sweet, non-aggressive, non-dominant girls. The flock is now mostly really, really young. World, & Alpia are the oldest ~5/6. Chavi is 3/4. Everyone else, including Henry, is only 12-18 months. Plus Ha'penny was really predator aware. She was better than Henry. She was a great forager. Wrold & Alpia have benefited from that.

I have a very different group to what it was even 12 months ago. My largest hen is an Aracuna/Silkie cross. All bantams of one sort or another & 1/2 frizzles. I am used to having several really strong personalities amongst my girls & lots of smarts. This lot isn't dumb but they don't have the Ha'penny sort of smarts & being rural Australia we have plenty of killers around. My resident currawong is super territorial & a killer. She hasn't harassed my birds but she has dropped some hefty sized kills in my yard. Saw her, so I know it was her & she is nesting just now so there will be young soon. She nicks eggs too. Then there are the crows, ravens, magpies, kookaburras, & the larger butcher birds [so named for a reason] ~ all predatory & can take out even quite large prey. Without Ha'penny my flock is much more vulnerable.

She was definitely a very special girl.

Hopefully Henry learned more from her than you realize and will become more sky aware.

Sadly it took losing Madeleine, my favorite hen to a hawk, for the roos from my 2020 flock to learn that. They were all so young, 6 or 7 months, but I never lost another in that manner.