#636.5

[deweydecimalchickens]

I got back tonight and found Nyx dead in the run. I'd had her for four years, making her around 5.5 years old, which is a really good lifespan for an ex-commercial hen. They're only meant to churn out eggs for eighteen months and then get slaughtered before the inevitable expensive reproductive disease kicks in.

As far as I can tell she was just going about her business and suddenly keeled over. I didn't see any signs of illness and when I gave them fresh bedding this afternoon she was running around and digging in it excitedly. No signs of injury and she hadn't hidden herself away anywhere the way they do when sick.

I'm sad and shocked, and when you get one like Nyx (or my old Dippy, previous lifespan record-holder) you get to thinking that they'll always beat the odds and be around forever. But I also feel like she had a really good, long retirement and didn't suffer through any kind of noticeable decline, and that's a win with these birds. I usually feel like they've died before their time and I should have been able to do more for them and I don't feel that way about Nyx. I feel like she had a good long life that she was enjoying right up to the end.

[deweydecimalchickens]

When I get a lone hen new friends because they're a social species and it's necessary for their welfare, that's basically like when Holly resurrected Rimmer to keep Lister sane. That's what I'm doing. And the outraged screams of the original hen as she defends her territory and status are Lister explaining to Holly that all those statistically significant interactions were "me telling him to smeg off, and him putting me on report for telling him to smeg off".

This integration is actually going better than most, touch wood. Allie pre-empted matters by being better at flying than I was at increasing the height of the separation fence. Nyx basically tolerates them as long as they don't try to eat out of the same bowl as her (I have four bowls for three chickens, it's fine, everyone gets to eat) and only doles out a couple of head-donks when provoked. My top hens have varied wildly in temperament (RIP Angry Vel the Birdzilla) but Nyx looks like being one of the calmer ones.

[deweydecimalchickens]

New Dinosaur Day!

That's Bron in front and Allie at the back. Allie gets the carnivore name as she was the first to bite me.

They are allegedly ex-free-range hens. I'd say from the faces and combs, Bron has spent a reasonable amount of time outside. Allie hasn't. Allie is also missing the tip of one toe, though it's long since healed over.

[deweydecimalchickens]

At 4 years post-rescue, Nyx is now my longest-lived ex-commercial hen. Generally the reproductive illnesses start kicking in at about 1 year and just keep getting worse. I think the fact she actually stops laying when she's moulting probably helps. It's rare for their bodies to actually take breaks. My previous record-holder was Dippy, tiniest and bravest and secret favourite of my first rescues, who made it to 3.5 years.

Nyx is on her own at the moment which isn't good for them, but there's a BHWT rescue weekend after next, so I can get her some new friends. And remind myself how much I hate integrations.

We had to put Fluffy to sleep a few weeks ago. Rest in peace my most enormous, genderpowerful, worst and babiest chicken.

[deweydecimalchickens]

A Very Angery Nyx who did not sign up for being manhandled by the vet and the vet student or implants on giant needles. Doubt she's going to like her week of antibiotics and painkillers much either.

But she got a lot of praise for being a very muscular ex-commercial hen who still weighs over 2kg and has made it to 4 years old before her ovaries started trying to kill her. She is apparently in very good condition!

(Update: she's slightly less mad now because I'm sharing my strawberry smoothie.)

[deweydecimalchickens]

How my chickens respond to the word "bedtime":

Fluffy - ambles slowly into the coop singing her little "boop-de-doo boop-de-doo" song to herself. Sometimes gets mostly through the doorway and stops cos she's forgotten where she's going, I'm not gonna lie.

Nyx - sprints around the run like it's a goddamn velodrome with a look in her eyes that says "YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE COPPER"

[deweydecimalchickens]

I think it was the right choice to give my chickens lots of fruit and frozen veg during the heatwave, and get them to pick it out of water. Bobbing for frozen sweetcorn seemed to be about the only thing that made my giant-breed fluffmonster feel better.

The cleanup, though. The cleanup was... bad. That was a much more fruity and liquid diet than they're generally used to.

[deweydecimalchickens]

I hate everything about hot weather but I especially hate having to wash and spray my chickens' bottoms so they don't get flystrike.

Worst job.

Nobody has a good time.