For those of you who’ve followed my blog from the beginning, you know we got four fluffy backyard chicks in May of 2009. I chronicled our early days with them in The Hen Diaries. Raccoons, lost hens, a ransacked garden, that beautiful first egg … so much drama!
You can follow our adventures as fledgling chicken-keepers below if you missed it:
Weeks:
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six & seven
- Eight, nine, & ten
- Eleven to nineteen
- Our First Egg
- Twenty to Twenty-nine
- Update
We lost one of those girls this week. Emily got suddenly ill last weekend and died on Tuesday. She was our first layer, and I always had a special fondness for her.
Rest in peace, Emily. We’ll miss you.
🙁
Rest in peace Emily. In the last year or so, we have lost Olive, Muriel, Abby, Winifred and Louise – all ex battery hens who enjoyed a bit of sunshine at the end of their lives.
I am sorry you lost Emily. It is a very sad day when you lose a chicken.
I noticed Emily is standing in a patch of Grape Hyacinth. The bulbs contain saponins which can be poisonous unless leached out with water. Here is a great list of plants toxic for chickens, http://www.poultryhelp.com/toxicplants.html
Thanks so much for the info. Here’s a discussion about whether you should remove potentially toxic plants from your yard for anyone else who’s interested. http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/627282/comprehensive-list-of-poisonous-plants-and-trees