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goodbye Rhona

undautriundautri Senior Member
in Poultry Health and Welfare
Rhona went to bed very early yesterday and id noticed her being very quiet all day , but still eating. When i locked them up for the night i noticed some yellow fluid by her vent feathers
today, i found her dead in the coop . strangely though there was an egg in the nest box and i think shes the one who was still laying.
 bless her , she was a big and beautiful girl
xx kath

Comments

  • sandiesbrahmassandiesbrahmas Super Moderator
    I'm sorry, Kath. It's always such a shock when a seemingly healthy bird suddenly dies. Best not even to speculate as to what may have been wrong with her.You always take great care of your charges.It's very hard to handle.
    I haven't been on the forum much due to lambing in atrocious weather.It's still horrid and the grass isn't growing. I had the same awful experience with a very special little ewe,Arielle. Bottle fed and too young to be bred, she was kept with others in the 'dry field' (who must have had a visit from the neighbour's ram!). I found her heavily pregnant mid Feb and she went on to produce two big and beautiful lambs with ease. Indoors for a few days after their birth she thrived, and I planned to let her go out with the others. Coming down early in the morning her 4 day old lambs were making a lot of noise and Arielle was dead....no idea why. It was a horrid experience.
    Still, Kath, draw yourself in, deep breath, wipe away the tears, and carry on for the sake of the others. How many chickens do you have now? Maybe a new hatch?
    My incubator is on day 21.....two pips from (probably) Gold and Blue Partridge Brahma and a broody Gold Brahma sitting on a rubber egg, a stone and a few crusts of bread(?!).Hopefully the two can be joined if she is amenable.The Blue Partridge Brahma cock which i hatched last year turned out to be a vicious thing, and is no more, though his genes may live on.....first time I've had a nasty Brahma cock in the many years I have been keeping them. I decided against moving the eggs from the incubator to the broody (she went broody after I set the eggs), as Brahmas can cover many eggs due to their large size, but are heavy and clumsy due to their feathery feet and heavy weight and can smash eggs with great ease.
    Try to keep your head up,Kath

    Sandie

  • undautriundautri Senior Member
    thanks very much Sandie
    that was such a sad story about Arielle- much harder to handle than losing a chicken
    im left with 7 - 2 chickens and 5 bantams and wont be adding to them this year . It looks like SallySioux has finished laying and the 2 silkies are now "lady boys" so i havent got a broody anymore.
    Mr Kipling has become very aggressive too, towards me in particular - the more you handle them as youngsters the more chance of them turning
    hes small though, hasnt got spurs and has a crooked beak so doesnt do any damage so hes safe here for a while
    i hope everything runs smooth for you from now on - such hard work lambing and heavy on the heart too
    xx kath

  • sandiesbrahmassandiesbrahmas Super Moderator
    Thanks Kath.

    The chick adoption was a breeze. One rubber egg, a stone and three bread crusts (which were what she was sitting on) were replaced with 10 chicks (by degrees). When a chick hatched and dried, i took first one down and placed it under her wing. She clucked and purred. the next two went under her breast. After that, when I appear with chicks she raised herself up and let them squirm under. She is a proud and loving adoptive mum, breaking bits up and carefully covering them (10 is nothing for a big Brahma!).


    There were 3 Naked Necks among them...so Gordon hasn't lost his touch!

    Sandie

  • undautriundautri Senior Member
    what a brilliant broody :) any relation to mrs grey?
    it must have been heartwarming to watch
    Nice to hear that Gordan is still going strong, hes a brilliant rooster
    i had to take Sallysioux to the vet yesterday - shes been limping badly for two days . i couldnt find anything wrong with her feet or legs so took her around yesterday afternoon . the vet couldnt find anything obvious so thinks its her hock or the muscles at the top of her leg , so shes on metacam and bed rest and keeping her away from Mr Kipling for a few days
    xx kath
     

  • sandiesbrahmassandiesbrahmas Super Moderator
    What does bed rest for a chicken look like, Kath? I hope that she makes a speedy recovery....metacam is usually very good for general aches and pains.

    Broody Brenda is doing a brilliant job. She's breaking food and calling them, spreading herself out like a tent and generally extremely proud of the brood she didn't hatch. She's in a makeshift pen (sheep hurdles and orange netting, covered by a vegetable net to keep the cats off), and is in the place where she always laid her eggs.She has the nearest thing i have ever seen to a nest made by a hen where she has drawn straw, stones etc around herself. Various treatments of the sheep take on around her and she is completely unfazed. There are also some orphan lambs who are still in there and who regularly poke their heads through the netting to take a look.

    Brenda is a Gold Partridge Brahma from an egg I hatched last year, so is not related to Mrs Grey (who watches over everything in spirit from her final testing place in the euphemistically named flower bed.).She was incubator hatched and kept on heat etc. which reminds me just how much hard work they can be.

    Gordon was badly beaten up by the Blue Partridge Brahma cock, Teddy, who also attacked myself, my daughter and was truly vicious with the dog. Teddy is no more. The other cock, James, is Gold Brahma.... he's fine with Gordon so far but he's gone for me twice.I have humiliated him, chased him, and warned him multiple times as he is visually a lovely bird, but there's a 'three strikes and you're dog food' rule here as these big cows can do some damage.

    Well, the weather is set to improve today (or so they say)
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