Our favorite hen Edie died while we were away on our trip. Our neighbor who was taking care of our girls found her on the nest box. I suspect she was having more problems passing an egg. Ever since she began laying, she had problems; whether she laid eggs with thin(or no) shells, or got eggbound. I had hoped that with her somewhat advancing age she would stop producing eggs and have a more peaceful, comfortable existence. Unfortunately that was not to be the case.
Lindsay was devastated when we told her about Edie. She decorated the box that we put her in with a photo, stickers of eggs and nests and notes to Edie from all of us.
We didn’t know what to do with her body at first. You aren’t allowed to bury pets in NYC and we couldn’t bring ourselves to throw her out with the trash. Ultimately Neil took her to the vet to be cremated (vets do group cremations that aren’t expensive).
We will miss her.
So sorry, Martha. She looked like quite a majestic lady.
I’ve been thinking of you a lot with this whole outbreak of salmonella and the subsequent horrendous findings of the conditions of large scale chicken farmers. I really hope to have my own back yard chickens one day!
Aw, Martha, so sorry to hear it. I just saw your post on the chicken meet up and came here and read this. She was a lovely hen. Sorry.
Thanks Larissa. I think we’re going to get a couple of chicks in the spring. I’m going to look for people who want to go in on an order with me. 🙂
Oh, I’m sorry about this! Somehow I missed this sad news.