Oh, this chicken keeping business is one hell of a roller-coaster isnt it.
After my threads about bullying a few weeks ago, we decided against re-homing 2 of our girls, and bought a new house and run, so we had 2 in one and 2 in the other. Happy days and happy hens.
My Speckledy, Oeuf-ilia has always been quite a quiet bird, and has been VERY regularly broody since early December.
She moved into the new accommodation with Pauline (the one who has being bullied) and all seemed well. I noticed the odd weird neck movement but all seemed well.
We came back from holiday last Sunday evening, and this week I noticed she was a bit quieter than normal, and lots of weird neck stuff.
This morning, I took her out, to feel her crop, and there was a HUGE impaction - like an orange, which was rock solid. I tried massaging it, but it was like a brick.
I managed to get her to the vets at 11.20, and he aggreed she had a badly impacted crop, and offerred surgery, but at reduced costs (I am friendly with his wife), but it was still a lot of money, and no guarantee of success. We decided that she would be put to sleep. He said he would like to do a post mortem at no charge to me, and rang me at 1.00pm to say that the mass was bedding she had been eating - probably when being very rapidly broody.
I am devastated, but now have another problem.
Pauline, the chicken who was being terribly bullied, is now on her own.
Do I get a youngish chicken (earlier than POL) and hope they can settle together, do I try and get her feathered and happy and try to reintergrate her with the other two (who were bullying her) - this would mean a reasonable period on her own.
What would you do?
