We are down to seven hens. We lost one yesterday, she died in her sleep in the coop. We noticed that she was listless and not eating that afternoon, then found her the next morning. I think it was Twilight. Most of the chickens have removed their colored leg bands, and we haven’t been able to sort out who is who. I know Seashell and Magic by sight. Schmoo still has her band. The rest have very similar coloring, and are starting their molt, so look off. I did not do a necropsy, her body was very thin, but did not look outwardly diseased. The hens are over four years old, and the average life span for laying hens is 3-7 years. They are also of questionable breeding, being hatchery birds and not from a reputable breeder of the breed. The rest of the hens will have a safe place with fresh water and food and treats until they too shuffle off this mortal coil.

Another sign that Spring is progressing is that I get at least one hen that goes broody. She sits the nest and won’t give it up, hisses and yells when someone comes near, and she if there is an egg, she hunkers over it like a dragon on a hoard. I have no tolerance for the behavior and pick up the broody hen off the nest, place her feet in the cold foot bath and take the eggs. I even take the golf balls that help remind the other chickens where to lay. At night I take her out of the nest again and put her on the roost. The bummer part is that when a hen goes broody, she stops laying eggs. My methods have so far worked to break the broody streak, but even once the behavior has stopped, she won’t lay again for weeks.

The hens’ preferred nesting boxes are a little large, two hens shouldn’t be able to fit together, but I rarely get broken eggs, so I let it be. The two pictured above are probably the same two that have dust bath wars over the same square foot of dirt.

It cracks me up when I see the chickens dust bathing. They shake, and roll, and lay in odd positions, all to get the dirt down into their feathers and dislodge oils and critters. Even funnier is when two chickens are trying to dust bathe in the same spot. Here’s a video.

Apparently I really do find it funny, here is a video from 2 years ago. It is probably the same two hens warring over dust in the same spot.