Fowl News: Good and Bad

Not much has been going on in poultry land these days. Only Connie has been laying, so we have an ample supply of very large eggs for our cooking.

I also realized it’s her birthday, or close to it, since Heather’s son has picked up his tiny poults for this year. She’s come a long way from her start in such a fancy environment!

That was the good news. As I was feeding the fowl, I heard an odd noise, like a branch scraping against the coop. When I checked it out, I realized it was Bianca, my only chicken who survived the Great Chicken Massacre a couple of years ago. She was breathing funny. I planned to check on her when I came back.

Anyway, I went to feed the horses. When I came back to turn the water off and pick up eggs, Bianca had collapsed. Now I’m all worried she got something contagious, so I am VERY disinfected now. I’m sad to lose her. I will keep a close eye on the others, who all seem fine so far. Of course, Bianca was all perky until today. She even got out a couple of days ago and was spritely running around.

She’d never been a big layer, and hadn’t produced eggs since last winter, so it might just have been her time. But she was my oldest. Sniff.

I exercised both Apache and Drew to cheer myself up. I think Vicki’s work with Drew is paying off—he did well in his ground work.

I’ll be doing a lot of coop cleaning in coming days. I hope Cindy and Cathy don’t get too pestered by Clint now that the rooster to hen ratio is 1:2.

Circle of life. Etc. Plus another senseless school shooting.