Unfortunately, the hard part of having chickens.

Her name was Betty, and she was one of the original 6 chicks we got 3 years ago, and she was the alpha hen before we got roos. She hatched and raised a few chicks for us(including the rooster that took the alpha reigns from her), and she laid huge eggs almost daily. She actually had just started laying again after enduring a very hot Florida summer, and a prolonged soft molt.

She was just dead on the coop floor this morning, no signs of trauma, didn’t appear egg bound, just a silent illness. I read that because chickens are prey animals, they will hide their illnesses and often won’t show signs, so there’s no telling what took her.

The most unfortunate part is that she was my wife’s favorite chicken, and she’s currently at work right now and won’t know until I break the news to her when she’s off. Over our 3 year journey of having chickens, we’ve had close to 10 deaths. She’s become more calloused to it, but if any chicken death is gonna get to her, it’s this one.

I have one last egg from her in our skelter, and I’m wondering if I should extract the yolk and preserve it.

Thanks for reading, may all your chickens live full, prosperous lives.