Coffee, our Chicken of Fate, died last night. It was Other Chap's (OC's) turn to visit the chooks today, and he found her dead in the coop this morning.
No obvious cause, no signs of bullying or pecking or anything.
Coffee, a black rock hybrid, arrived in September 2011. She just appeared amongst our Girls, having been dropped n by someone who didn't want her. Luckily for her, she'd been dropped in with the young dinner girls, rather than the established flock. If she'd been dumped in with them, she would probably have been killed (by them).
She had scaly leg, and her feathers weren't in very good condition. She'd been wing-clipped, but whoever did it had clipped everything - primaries, secondaries, and a long way up.
It was too late to quarantine her, so we treated her for the scaly leg mite, and gave her some extra protein to help her feathers. The treatment for leg mite took quite a long time, but it did have the advantage that it helped her to not mind being handled.
She blossomed into a lovely little girl, who laid enormous eggs. When we joined the 2 allotment flocks, she became part of Henry's harem. She had a good free range life, and was with us for 2 and a half years (was it really that long?! I only know because I looked back through the blog to find out). I guess that means she was about 3.
Unbelievably, I can't find any photos of her.
