RIP Sweetiepie the hen

RIP Sweetiepie the  Hen. Over 10 years old, an ex battery hen who came to us aged about 2 1/2 years old 







and who has been the top hen ever since. She has survived 8 fox attacks ( several seriously injuring her) and led hens to safety many times. She also lead them into committing much mischief! Here she lead a daring raid into the house :) 




 She reared the Sweetie 6 ( Dorkings) as well as other broods of chicks and was always an excellent mum





and through out her long life she was a firm but fair top hen. This is Sweetie a few weeks ago.

For the last 5 years she was  always accompanied by her good friend Henny; the two of them went round together at all times and slept in one nestbox for company. Henny is the large black rock hen standing behind Sweetiepie 

Sweetie died this evening while I was at a meeting; I checked her before I left and it was obvious she was fading fast but was sat next to Henny. Henny was preening her feathers and crooning to her. I thought about ending her life then but as she did not seem in obvious pain I decided to check again when I got home.  On my return I found them together; Sweetie having just died and Henny sheltering her still warm body under her large black glossy wing (as hens do to their chicks) .

  

I will always remember Sweetie. for her bravery and her fair way of being Top Hen. For her dedication to rearing and protecting her chicks and most of all for sitting on my lap and crooning at me.

RIP Sweetie. Much missed already xxx

Sweetie update! And an apology for not posting

***Apologies for no posts for a month, my computer died completely and Compostman has rebuilt a new one inside the case, reusing all the memory and hard drives so I got to keep all my stuff :) BUT it took some time. I have been up to lots of interesting things so I shall gradually post them up as and when I can - forgive me if it takes some time as this is a very busy time of year for me! ***




Great news! Sweetiepie the 8 1/2 year old ex battery hen is back in with her flock, back to being Top Hen and Hen in Chief again :)

She is laying 4 - 5 eggs a week, is generally causing mayhen around the place and is growing some beautiful new speckled grey feathers around the scab, where a month ago there was no skin at all. I am astonished at her recovery - and it just goes to show what amazing healing powers animals have.

She was apart from the flock for a month as she needed intensive care but she is happy to be back with them all :)

Hurrah!

Stopping a very broody hen!

As I previously mentioned , Violet Dorking had gome madly broody...dunking her bum in icy water didn't help, and she was severely disrupting the other Dorking girls in their life and egg laying...so she had a 2 day spell in the "anti hormonal hen" pen....aka a double insulated plastic rabbit hutch, with no bedding, but lots of water and food...

She REALLY did NOT like this and screetched like a mad hen non stop for a few hours, then settled down to a low key grumble for another few hours...and then stopped being broody.

I let her out after 24 hours and she is back to normal, laying and free ranging and being her usual delightful self.

So...as Sweetiepie is also mad broody hen, guess who is in the "anti hormonal hen pen" now?

Quiet reigns in the orchard, at last ;-)