While the only details I am willing to give are that the untimely event was thankfully, fast and hopefully, painless to lovely Betty, I am still trying to come to terms with and make sense of her sudden death.
For the "farmers" out there and the non-chicken people, the sight of me in my backyard in total distraught over a dead chicken probably seems ridiculous. But, there I was, standing in my backyard holding my lifeless Bard Rock and crying like a baby. Her death seemed senseless. Her death seemed mysterious. Her death seemed useless. And I was speechless.
Last week we lost our beautiful Bard Rock chicken. While the death still seems mysterious, senseless and unwanted, I am have come to terms with its usefulness.
It feels quite odd for me to describe a death as useful but in a way the loss of the Bard Rock has helped the flock. While I thought of her as the one holding the flock together, her willingness to share time separately between the thee Buffs and the two Dominiques was keeping them apart. In the week plus since her passing our two young Dominiques have really come into their own. Both once shy and only willing to hang with the Bard are now out and about with the other hens. Both has lost their irrational fear. Both have grown up a lot in a very short time.
We miss Bard Rock Betty but the loss has allowed for growth and removed a sub-set of hens. The flock is a complete and single set.
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