Picking before the storm

[lesa]

Oh, chickie that is too bad. It is a terrible feeling not to be able to do anything to help them... She was lucky to have you, to hold her in the end.

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

well, most of the garden fared fine. a few plants knocked over but nothing that can't be staked back up.

but i am bummed this morning. yesterday after most of the rain and winds died down and it was still light out i went out to check on my chickens and the coop. poor birds were all cooped up for the day and i think that was very stressful on my 5 month old project faverolles pullet. she was hen raised and sort of skittish towards me, would whack my hand with her beak when i try to touch her and was always the one getting picked on by the other hens and the 3 turkeys. last night she wasn't in her usual spot ready from her bedtime. instead she was sitting on a hay bale looking a little puffed up and i tried to reach for her she gave me a half hearted peck that just didn't seem her. she allowed me to pick her up with no fuss so i brought her in the house and gave her some food which she pecked at like she hadn't eaten all day and tried guzzling down water. i thought she might have run into a wall in the coop or could have been pushed off her perch by someone bigger. she had no bugs on her since i keep my birds sprayed weekly and no signs of being hurt or plucked at. she slept in the house all night in my empty 55 gallon fish tank in my living room and seems fine till this morning after checking on her and then checking on all my other birds, i came back into the house to find her thrashing in the tank and throwing her head back, eyes so wide i knew she was not going to recover from this. i picked her up and held onto her to keep her from doing any more harm to herself, but she passed shortly after that.

i am really sad with this. she is the 3rd pullet from my own breeding i have kept that i have lost in the past year. she, like the others had not been laying yet either! i thought i should have brought her in yesterday morning before the mess really started here but i figured they would all make it fine. now i wish i had pulled her inside.

So sorry! Poor girl. Glad you were there to be with her.

 

[trunkman]

you never know when things will happen, I have a favorite runt pass in my arms a few months ago, I think she was egg bound, needless to say it was heartbreaking... sorry for your loss...