Eartha's Passing

Today, on Mother's Day, the 14th of May, while playing a board game inside, Millicent started her loud egg song. I went outside to quiet her down and instead found Eartha laying down in the sandy run. I thought the way she was laying down was not normal and fairly awkward. I attempted to stand her up, only to have her stumble and fall back down. Her feathers were puffy and up, and her legs were splayed oddly under her. I knew something wasn't right so I brought her inside. She was quiet, yet her eyes seemed normal and clear. Just by looking at her I would have otherwise assumed she was healthy, had I not gotten closer. 

Her behavior reminded me of some of the behavior other chickens of the flock had exhibited when going through egg troubles. As I cannot prove that Eartha has laid a single egg to date, while Ethel and Ester, both similar in age, have laid hundreds, I thought that egg troubles were easily the culprit. I put her in a warm bath in the sink with some Epsom salt, as that had cleared Betty's egg problems before. 

This time, however, there was no such luck. Eartha stayed in that bath for about an hour, nearly silent, drifting in and out of sleep. Hr eyes were still clear, although she refused to eat blueberries offered to her. After an hour, while I was in another room, I heard her sneeze three times and some shuffling. Five minutes of silence followed, after which she started flapping her wings, struggling in the water. I went to her and tried to calm her, as she had slightly twisted her neck. I recognized this, though, from when Buffy had died. Death throes. She died rather quickly, which is all we could have asked for. We showed the body to the flock, so they/d understand what had befallen their friend, and buried her the same afternoon.  We never performed a necropsy, as she didn't have any parasites and seemed very healthy only yesterday.

Rest in Peace Eartha

An Egg Eater

After the installation of the two nest boxes on top of the smaller coop, we've had worries about the security of those eggs. Since they are only behind one run door and can be reached easily enough if the door is open. One egg was left for a few hours on a table outside and when it was recovered a blue jay was standing over it eyeing it. We got to it before it could act.

However, our fears were realized when another (or the same) blue jay appeared in the run. We shut the door on him- trapping him. His target egg had only a small break in it, but it was far too large for him. I was able to catch him, although he bit me on contact. I held him for awhile in the hopes that he'd be scared enough to not come back.

In the future, we will start leaving the second run door open as it is separated from the top net boxes by a low tunnel. Hopefully the wild birds do not find the way through the tunnel. I had trusted that the chickens would be aggressive enough to drive off marauding birds, but I am no longer sure. I was confident because of how they used to attack our cats that were three times the size of the hens.