Hard Lesson

So the Princess Farmer had a hard farming lesson yesterday. We had to put down one of our much loved hens, Ellie. Ellie was one of our original hens, and the hen modeling for our logo. It took her FOREVER to start laying, (we jokingly debated if she was worth her keep, or not), but when she finally did start laying, she laid bombers: nothing short of Good Year Blimps! We could never miss an Ellie-egg in the group. And she would come running when she’d see me coming across the farm, always looking for the next treat. Such a personality! But apparantly laying bombers is not always so great on the hen. I noticed she had a poopy rear end day before yesterday, and mentioned it to my husband. By morning, the other hens had so picked at her that the crew questioned if she might have been attacked by the hawk. But closer examination revealed the severe brutality than can go on in the hen house. We cleaned her up and medicated her and separated her from the others, but she declined rapidly through the day. I sat with her for a while, but she had no interest in me, or food, or water, or even keeping her eyes open… Shortly after, my sweet crew notified my husband (no one wanted to break the news to me?) that she was struggling badly and trying to lay an egg and was in total distress. It would be cruel to let her continue.  What?!  Didn’t she  run over begging for treats just 24 hours ago?  Thankfully, the guys handled putting her down for me.  And in an effort to understand what went wrong better, they looked inside her and said she had 3 eggs there, one of which was so enormous that they don’t believe it ever could have come out normally.  So today, as I mourn the loss of sweet Ellie, I can’t help but regret my chicken ignorance and wonder if there was something more that I could have done.  Farm life!  wow.  Some lessons are definitely harder than others.