Kitchen Garden Forum

I lost two hens to extreme old age yesterday, but they keave a lasting memory.
One of them was Mama Duck, so-called because the first brood she hatched in 2006 were duckilings. Here she is with chicks two years later.
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Back last November she started to show signs of old age and began sleeping on the floor of the house, I was a litle concerned as another hen had been sleeping on the floor for months, an aged and very large Blackrock known as Mrs Bigly, who had got too heavy and old to jump up to the perch. She had always been a fairly aggressive individual. I needn't have worried as Mrs B seemed to immediately take on the role of carer and let Mama Duck sleep under her wing every night. I never suspected hens did this, usually shunning or attacking the sick or old.
Mama Duck finally gave up the ghost and died yesterday morning. Within a few hours Mrs B was also dead. Had she been keeping herself alive to be a carer and had the death of her patient taken away her purpose in life and her will to live?
It's always dangerous to assign human emotions to animals, but I can't help wondering!

Sorry to hear the touching account of losing two hens Alan. Hens and cockerels have a much more complex lifestyle than most people give them credit for. Having watched my own little flock over the years, who live outside of a pen and wander around the garden and the farmers field next door as they please, I can confirm that hens strike up friendships within the flock and the whole flock interaction is quite complex. Groups of hens from the same hatch mostly strike up a friendship group but not always, you get social climbers who suck up to or challenge the lead hen and the cocks stay out of any female quarrels.

Mine roost on perches in the barn which they access from hopping up on the mini- tractor or the digger and the digger has been out on a job for some weeks and one of mine had taken to roosting on the sack trucks which is not very safe. The reason I found out was because there were concerned noises from the others, so for three nights I picked her up and placed her on high set of ladders instead (I couldn't reach the perch...) and the noises stopped when I did. She is now getting to the perch herself, probably by watching the others.

So, I'm not surprised that your hens helped each other.

MW

Morning Alan, it is indeed sad when we lose pets or livestock that we have had for years, especially if they have been good characters.....

I think man is really just starting to find out how complex most animals lives are.