Sunday, April 25, 2010

April Is The Cruelest Month

Rats.  Our white chicken died.  No weird foaming, green droppings, nothing.  Just laid down and died.  The poultry site says, "Sometimes chickens just drop dead."

Her eggs had been getting smaller -- I thought she was just ramping down for summer.  She SEEMED completely energetic.  Her eyes are clear and bright.  Who knows? The site recommended some Baytril, which we keep on hand.  But they also said cut grass is bad for chickens -- and I'd been giving them grass (I thought chickens ate grass!).  Maybe they meant oily lawnmower grass, not hand-pulled or hand-cut grass?

We've been keeping cats for 30 years and nearly lost one to a whole WTF? episode with asthma.

And my bees aren't looking so good today.  I SHOULD have kept them warm in the house and put them in today.  I hate saying "live and learn" when other things die.

We were also calling the hen "Steve" (McQueen, in The Great Escape) because she'd got out once by burrowing under the fence.  NEVER NAME A GOLDFISH OR A CHICKEN.


1 comment:

Christine Wasankari said...

Regular pulled grass if fine for chickens. Grass cut from power mowers is not, yes due to oil etc etc. But chickens eat grass on their own, so "organic" grass is just fine. I know you don't "weed and feed" (we don't either) so it should be all good. -- We have lost two hens. One froze to death, she didn't make it back into the coop in time. And one died of a plugged vent. It happens sometimes. Just sort of sucks when your flock is so small. I'm sorry :-(

One other thing to consider is the weeds. I know buttercups are not good, but all my animals seem to instintively know it. So unsure if you have the horrible creeping buttercup that we have here, but that may something to look at. But I don't recollect seeing that there so it's likely she just moved on because it was time. It happens :-( How old was she?