Me too...I miss her. She was a special bird. Here's another ride on the feels train for ya.
Melanie lived a long life too. 8 years- she was a year older than Victoria. She showed symptoms much like a human with post traumatic stress disorder and I think that is why she attacked my girl. After that, she was unable to integrate at all. I built a separate pen for her. I had her from a day old and she had been raised with a polish, and I think it was too much the poor thing to see another one. She saw the others in her flock die and when I found her hiding she looked shellshocked.
After a while, a rooster came into my life. He was mean. I loved him right away of course but he was a great big bird and nasty. I decided to try to integrate Mel again. She attacked him horribly. He got hurt and had to be pulled and needed recovery time. Every day I set him in a small pen by her cage so she could look at him, and once he was better and had grown bigger I introduced him again. She attacked him again but this time he attacked her back and they fought. This sounds terrible but bear with me. They went at it a while and I watched for injury while they sparred and I prayed that Mel could come to terms with Rex.
Finally. FINALLY. she did. They came to terms with eachother and ignored eachother. At first. Then over the years as I watched them, they slowly became more than reluctant fellows and gradually became friends. They lived together until she died.
STOPPPP!!!
. He started as an assisted hatch following a hen that abandoned the nest at day 18. A very nice EE took over and 2 chicks hatched fine; Carter was halfway out when I left for work...and no farther along when I got home. He was shrink-wrapped. When he was finally out, he could not stand. I didn't think he'd make it through the night, but I syringe fed him egg yolk-feed-yoghurt gruel and PolyViSol. He stood at day 3 but was down on his hocks. I made him a hobble. He stood upright by day 6. But I noticed he had cataracts and was blind. But his sweet EE momma took him back and we (she and I) taught him how to eat and drink with vocal cues and taps. He would eat and eat and eat until his crop was bulging!! My husband built him a special ground level coop and large fenced pen that he shared with a Dominique, a golden laced Wyandotte, and his sister (BCM). He followed his "sisters" by sound to the food and water. He would even forage with them when I let them out. At night I would pick him up and place him in his house with his sisters. Sometimes if it was already dark I would call to him "Carter?" and he would chuckle in reply so I could find him. Sadly, at about 6 months of age, he, 2 of his sisters, and 13 other birds were taken down by a predator in the night when we had ice on the electric fence and the coop door was accidentally left open 
Poor Carter, all struck out, indeed.
