Violet (Violent) died last night.
She was one of three girls we kept from our 2018 hatch (Violet, Elizabeth, and Bott). She was the offspring of one of the Welsh Black All 3 of them were very assertive and bossy girls, and I ended up calling her Violent because she really was.
The three of them were part of our allotment flock (pre covid) but we never had the chance to breed from them. Their Dad was Bertie, our Vorwerk. Her Mum was one of the allotment girls. She (and Bott) had a flat comb, rather than the pea comb that the original Welsh Black (and thir mixed offspring) had. I'd always assumed her Mu, was Phyllis or Dilys, because they also had flat combs (but that was just a lazy assumption).
Most of the lovely girls we bred had the nature of the Australorp (or going back to Roo) part of their heritage. These 3 were not the same. Maybe it was the Vorwerk influence.
None of the three of them liked to be handled, and we never forced them. She would eat out of my hand, but that was it.
Violet would go broody, for a long period, each year, and this provided a respite for the lower ranking hens. She was a gorgeous looking girl, her black feathers had the irridescence of her Australorp heritage
Her death was quick.
She was a bit off colour a couple of days ago, and was definitely off colour yesterday. Her comb and wattles weren't right, but she was still a good heavy weight so hadn't been hiding an illness. I gave her some Nutridrops, and checked her over, and she just looked like she was on her way out. I offered her mealworms. She ate one, but refused others, She took herself off to the Cube very early,
I wasn't surprised to find her dead in the coop this morning.
She was coming up to 6 years old, which is a reasonable age.#
I will miss her.
