When a Hen Passes...

[Sally PB]

Does anyone cry? I did with Winston and assume I will when the other 5 eventually pass. They are just such fun and I love taking care of them...

Oh...and when you do bury them, do you just bury them "naked" or wrap them in a cloth or put them in a box?

Mine are buried "naked," and I do cry. Some more, some less. When I found my favorite bird, Sunny, dead for unknown reason in the coop last March, I bawled like a baby. When I buried her, I cried even harder.

When my other favorite, Pip, finally succumbed to salpingitis, I felt numb. I had known the night before was her last. When I buried her near Sunny, I wailed.

 

[ChickQueen77]

I have only buried 1 of the chickens that has died. the only chicken I buried was a friendly little runt that I called Little Red.

 

[tlcmurphy]

@Winston1 I want to say this is a great thread I’m sorry you lost your girl. I just lost my second hen a month ago and still miss her

 

[BigBlueHen53]

When we have a chicken die, or we have to put one down due to illness or injury, we return their body to nature, to the "Circle of Life." Rather than bury it where it would take time to decompose (and might get dug up), we carry it down to a shady spot at the bottom of our property and deposit it where Nature can dispose if it as She deems fit, and the bird's essence can fly away.

 

[Anon112]

The only thing I will say about the "nature takes its course" strategy is that one time an animal dragged one of my hens back into my yard. (Now, to be fair, I was really upset and it was very cold, so I hadn't carried her body as deep into the woods as I normally do). She was about half eaten and it was somewhat upsetting.

I think that something important to realize about how we deal with the body of a deceased animal is that, just like with people, the steps are as much about our own grief process as it is about respecting the life that has passed.

When an animal is a pet to you, sometimes you need a little ritual to help get through your emotions. Figuring out the ritual or process that works best for you can really help. Thanks to Caitlin Doherty (from Ask a Mortician on YouTube), I developed a routine that I follow when I lose one of my cats, and it definitely helps make the pain more bearable.

 

[Evadig]

I cry, but not until I'm alone and I'm sure no one's looking.

I bury mine in the backyard, in a nice flat spot near the coop that became the cemetery only because I had already dug a hole there and it fit our Helen Turkey just perfectly. I don't wrap them in anything, but do put grass down as a "bed" first. Their graves are covered in paving stones but this spring I'm going to plant flowers and put nice rocks as markers instead.

I even buried a snake that I killed!

I'd do that too. I actually once found a dead fox on the road by our house and took it home and buried it!

 

[neo71665]

I bait my hog trap with them.

 

[AinaWGSD]

I have yet to have a chicken pass of "old age." Most of my chickens are food. Most of the deaths not caused by me have been from predators.

In the past we've taken the carcass to a spot down the road and toss them into the woods for the wildlife, but a new house nearby has a chicken coop and I don't want to attract predators to their coop so the last few have gone in the trash bin. A little heartless maybe, but these are not animals I have a close emotional bond with (as the plan from the beginning was to eat them).

When my legbar pullet passed last winter I definitely cried. Even knowing it was coming and knowing it was an end to her suffering, it still hurt. She's buried next to the run in the backyard.

For me, it's far more important that they were treated with respect and kindness while they were alive and under my care. Rituals are for the bereaved, not the deceased. Disposing of a body is just that, getting rid of an empty shell.