And then there were 21. Zorra died this morning, she was a month shy of 8 years. She's been off by herself during the day the last few weeks and not interested in morning BOSS or evening scratch so I knew she was fading. Last night she was in the closed nest box instead of up on the roost, same thing Yue (same 2012 batch of chicks) did last fall so I figured she would similarly live only a couple more weeks.
But this morning she had (I assume) a heart attack right outside the barn when I was tossing out BOSS and feed. Fell over right in front of me, I picked her up and she died almost immediately. Frankly I'd rather that than to find her just dead somewhere, I know she didn't suffer.
Zorra would go broody a few times a year and raised many of the remaining 21 girls.
This is her last June
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