Death on the farm...and near death...

Friday, May 17 2013.
This was to be a happy day, my wife was coming home from a week long seminar in Las Vegas. Which was a very happy event in itself, because I did miss her greatly.
Also on this day while I was working in the yard, I noticed the Rooster mating with one of my Jersey Giant hens and not putting much thought to it. Several hours later I could not find the hen in her usual egg laying spots, but I did find her under the hen house. When she came out I noticed that she was breathing quite heavily, so I immediately thought that she was having trouble with an egg. I rubbed her abdomen to see if I could feel an egg, but nothing, it was so tight. I continued to rubbed for a few more minutes and then set her down on the hen house floor to see if she would take a drink and she just fell over, I quickly scooped her up again and held her only for a short time before she just went limp and closed her eyes. That was it...no other signs or symptoms.
I had a private funeral for her in the orchard with the other chickens that we have lost. While I was digging the hole for her my wife called to tell me she was on her way, although I was excited about that I did have to tell her that Carliqua had passed on. I also had to tell her that at the same time all of this was happening, her favorite hen Crookie (special needs chicken) who had gone broody had become not well and had gotten off her eggs several hours earlier and I could not get her to drink water and she was fading fast. I pulled her out of her nesting box and I sat with her on the back porch with a bucket of water praying that she would start to drink and get a little life back in her. My sister-in-law had stopped by to drop off a book and we started to discuss my situation, we all agreed that we would pray about it and that she would get better. By the time she had left Crookie had started to drink from the watering bucket and had stood up. She then jumped off the porch and started to pick at some grass. I then moved her to the front yard away from all of the other chickens, shortly after that my wife made it home and had brought some chicken vitamins. To make a long story short, she did drink more water and got more energy and by the next morning she was back to pretty much her normal self. By that evening she had worked it out with three other hens to give her more eggs since we had to throw her others. 

To update this June 7, 2013.

I had to cull our last Black Jersey Giant "Chaniqua", she had developed an impacted crop a few weeks ago and we had treated her the best way that we possibly could, but it turned into sour crop and it in the end was what made me choose to cull her, as one of the members on BYC says "out of compassion and love". It was for the best.

Again another funeral and she was placed next to her sister "Carliqua" in the orchard.

Crookie did recover and conned three hens into giving her more eggs, which she has successfully hatch one of them as of yesterday and she still is working on the other two eggs.

First chicken egg hatch in incubator

Here are some images of my first hatch.

The incubator that I used, after retrofitting it for my automatic egg turner and using light bulbs as the heat source.

 The Girls responsible for the eggs in the incubator.

Name: Alice

Breed: Amber Star (Rhode Island/Leghorn) 

Name: Cow Pie

Breed: Auracana/ Americana

Name: Crookie (crossed beak)

Breed: Splash Wyandotte

Name: Liberty

Breed: Blue Lace Red Wyandotte

Name: Ms. Cluckie

Breed: Amber Star (Rhode Island red/Leghorn)

Name: Penelope

Breed: Amber Star (Rhode Island red/ Leghorn)

Name: Rhode Island Rhoda

Breed: Rhode Island Red

Name: Betty Barred Rock

Breed: Plymouth barred rock

The Boss of the Barn Yard

Name: Roo Paul

Breed: Blue Lace Red Wyandotte

The outcome of the first hatch has not yet been determined, at this current time it is still going. When they are out of the incubator I will post more photos of them.