:hugs :hugs I can imagine that you're gutted. Try to resist the 'what if' thoughts. Her passing wasn't your fault; most chickens don't live to 7+ years.
A laudable ambition.
What will you do about quarantine? Will the new fenced area work for that?
It's an average, as with all these figures dished out for chicken-related things. About 50% will take less time, and about 50% will take more time, all other things being equal (which they aren't either, but hey, who cares about such details in the poultry business that funds the research?)
fwiw I don't think we need look for nefarious causes or get suspicious about neighbours. Henry was very old and had fly strike. Fret is quite old and is not dead yet. Tull was young and barely into her stride, but I have had several birds die suddenly, apparently for no reason or of suspected...
congratulations on your Friend badges @Mother of Chaos and @thistlewick :clap It seems to me you haven't been around long but both of you have made quite the impact on me in that time!
what page are you up to now @Labsandchickens8 ? It takes some steel to start reading a thread this big from the beginning, and more perseverance to keep working through it.
Did you intend to quote all those posts, or just the last one?
this seems doubly appropriate in the circumstances :lol: And might lift the mood
edited to add, we don't want to turn this into a typical old-people-comparing-their-ailments type round table do we? ;)
Could it be catatonia?
'Locking on' is something passerines have the appropriate anatomy to do. Galliformes don't and can't. Again suggests maybe she's catatonic?
The summer birthday parties continue here: Fforest, Killay, Uppsala and Ystrad are 3 today 🎉 🎂 🎈
During the last year the other hatch-mates, the SFH sisters Frida and Quenelle, passed quickly and in quick succession, of illness unknown, but thankfully no-one else in the flock suffered it...
Their 4th birthday seems an appropriate time to praise the 3 Penedesenca ladies. They have been one of the best rare breeds here. (Sadly the same can't be said for their male hatch-mates, all 3 of whom passed within 15 months, apparently of heart failure [black comb tips].)
The breed is famed...
Do you know how old Fret is @Shadrach ? My memory says she's been there from the start of your field days, but not what her age was when you started, if you mentioned it. Anyway, I think you're doing the right thing.
Maybe she's just feeling the very long hot days of summer, and will improve...
That makes sense.
We talk about some [internal] switch 'flipping' when hens go broody, and when they get broken from it; the broody trance is an abnormal sort of stasis, so there must be some physiological process behind it, which can get turned on, and off again. So a partial or total failure...
My lack of understanding is not for want of trying. There are a lot of good resources out there; this is one that I've bookmarked eg https://scratchcradle.wordpress.com/genetics-mini-series/
but there must be a mental block somewhere in my head because the bits won't come together into a whole...
I don't have plans for any more introductions at present, largely because I don't have space for any more! Otherwise I'm sure I could find an excuse to add this and that if they came available :D I've still got two broodies sitting on fake eggs! :th
I have no idea how the flock will develop...