She didn't look poorly last night, just a bit tired with the
heat. I think she may have been trying to lay an egg and just died. She looked very peaceful.
I am making a new flower bed full of bee attracting flowers and she (her ashes) has been buried in the middle of it.
Tiny Hen, small but top hen in every way. She was still terrorising the cats and trying to get into the house yesterday
This is what she looked like back in March 2012
Tiny Hen became a house hen this time last year, she became very weak and was being bullied by the others to the point of terror and had stopped eating or drinking. I brought her inside and gave her food, water, love and cuddles. Gradually she recovered and grew her feathers back and became a very feisty, bold little hen:)
Tiny Hen was rescued from an "Barn" system, so she lived crowded together with thousands of other hens, under artificial light, inside a huge shed. Never seeing daylight or going outside. "Colony" or "Enriched" eggs mean the hens are also shut inside a small cage, inside the huge shed.
If you do buy free range eggs already - Babs, Bunty, Titch, and Marjoram the ex battery hen thank you from the bottom of their hearts ,
as do I.
If you don't - please - for the sake of hens like Babs, Bunty, Titch and all their sister hens still in barns and cages -
switch to buying free range eggs - it is the only way to make sure that the eggs you buy come from hens that have had a reasonable life.
RIP little hen, fly high and free.
Thank you for reading :-)
Tear in my eye but you are so right. She was lucky that you found her.
ReplyDeleteGod bless tiny hen.
Xxx
Was strange not having her around my feet, along with Amber hen - the piar of them continually tried to trip me up with their shadowing me :-)
DeletePlease be careful, it's against the law to bury poultry or animals, they have to be taken for incineration- stupid I know but that's life nowadays.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that sss - I have clarified my blog post as it was her ashes we buried. Silly rule but I suppose needed.
DeleteNot sure it applies to pet hens, rather than commercial flocks, but still I do try to follow the rules, even if I don't technically have to.
My cat is buried in my garden, lots of people bury pets in their garden. You can bury a person in your garden if you want to.
DeleteYep, people and pet cats and dogs, rabbits etc OK but not poultry or livestock- daft!
DeleteAnd even a couple of hens in the back garden, kept as pets, count as "livestock"
DeleteSo sad to hear about Tiny Hen. I had one of mine die randomly last week for the first time and I'm still a bit traumatized. Lovely to hear who you rescued her more than once!
ReplyDeleteThank you bluedaisyglass and sorry to read that one of yours died as well.
Delete(((Hugs))) The day that sees an end to such systems can't come soon enough.
ReplyDeleteI agree Nikki. Thank you for commenting and welcome to The Compost Bin
DeletePoor Tiny Hen. So sorry that you lost her, but as you say, you gave her a good life and cared for her so tenderly. Good for you.
ReplyDeleteThe free range eggs in England are so very good, the bright orange yolk is amazing to me, and very tasty too!
Its because of the green stuff hens eat that the eggs have yellow yolks :-) Free range grass/herb eating hens have the very best life and give the very best eggs.
DeleteChickens are such characters, I love how they have really different personalities.
ReplyDeleteGlad that tiny hen got to experience some of the good life during her time with you xx
Thank you, dreamer
DeleteSo sorry to hear about Tiny Hen. It's going to take a while to get used to *not* having a house hen.
ReplyDeleteI have a house hen too, for the same reasons (and, spookily, she looks similar to Tiny).
I still have Amber Poppet hen attempting to get in at every chance but she is a young hen ( 28 weeks) and just seems to love my company, not an ill hen. They are very strange creatures!
Deleteaaahhh bless, sorry to hear of you poor little hen xx
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteAs I said on your Facebook page I was so sorry to hear of poor Tiny Hen's death. She had some lovely months with you and I bet she enjoyed virtually every moment. You rescued her twice, I bet you were her hero.
ReplyDeleteRIP Tiny Hen.
(It may seem silly the rule about not being able to bury 'livestock' on farming or small holding land, but it is there with good reason, and I'd rather have cremated a bird than find it dug up by a fox at a later date.)
Thanks Sue
DeleteMy "silly" coment refered to the idea that people in a town with a couple of pet hens have to treat them as livestock, rather than my own position here.
Even though I do love my hens they are still livestock to me.
And yes - much better not to have buried pets dug up and it does happen and is horrible if it does :-(
I almost didn't want to read this post because the Tiny Hen stories were my favorites, but you made it more a celebration of her life with you. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tpals, glad you liked the Tiny hen stories - I still have Amber Poppet being my companion hen though, as well as Titch, so I expect there will be more oddball hen stories to come :-)
DeleteOh! I haven't looked on your blog for many years, but when I came across this, tears sprung to my eyes! Poor little Tiny, but good she died peacefully in her sleep. I know how difficult it can be to decide to end an animal's life, however much pain they may be in...
DeleteI loved the Tiny Hen tales and I'll miss them. A.P sounds delightful!
And so sweet that you cremated her then buried her ashes in a beautiful little flowerbed. Did she like flowerbeds?
RIP Tiny...
Best wishes to you CW you must be SO sad...