Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Doralee's Last Days

Doralee the Wonder Chicken has officially entered the sunset of her life. In the past few weeks she has slowed down a lot, lost a considerable amount meat from her old bones and has entirely lost her spark. We think the end will come quietly, and probably pretty soon.

We don't know how old Doralee is. She came to us in the spring of 2007 from Swede Farm. She was already an adult and had arrived to them, as such, years earlier. I'll have to see if they remember in which year they got her.

Doralee stopped laying eggs well over a year ago, but we didn't really care. We got a couple young egg layers and kept her (and her two mates) on as ambiance. We still fed her, and often in the air - where she used to love to jump to get fruits and veggies on offer. If you've been with the blog for awhile, you'll remember the cucumber overload last summer. Doralee's happiest days.

I considered euthanizing her, but we don't think she's suffering, so we'll just let nature take its course for now. She was a good chicken. I'm sure she'll end up in Chicken Heaven. Where I assume cucumbers are always in season.

5 comments:

LeeAnne said...

Alrighty. I have checked our NAIS microchip records. This chicken came to us from some Cypress neighborhood full grown. She might well be four years old. Our "Old Red" lived many months while he was in an advanced stage of chickenhood.
- Tim

Blue Heron Farm said...

I read that chickens can live 14 years? Not sure what to think about that. I figured she was at least four - we've had her two now. Poor sweet thing. She's just all puffed up and lying there. :(

NoGrandmother said...

You guys are having all of your Difficult Farm Lessons of 2009 all in one lump, aren't you?

Michael@greenakeys.com said...

Put that bird in a pot! Thats good protein!

Blue Heron Farm said...

There's no meat left on her! It would be more work than it's worth, seein' as how we don't have a fancy pluckerdoodledoo like you. ;P