Joyce

Okay, so sad news here at Sunnysideupdale Farms… we lost another chicken. This time, however, it was one of the babies.

It was obvious from the get-go that Joyce was going to be the runt. Her incredibly small frame was exacerbated when we brought home the three new chicks back in June as day-olds and she was half the size of the other two. Nothing changed much over the last three months in that regard, as the other two were nearly twice her size at all times. I contributed part of it to the fact that the other two, a Cuckoo Maran and a Rhode Island Red, are big birds, where a Speckled Sussex is a medium bird.

But yesterday as I was changing out their water and letting the girls free-range for a while, I noticed one absent. When I opened the door to the henhouse there she was, looking as though she had died in her sleep and fallen off the roost. There didn’t appear to be any obvious signs of trauma, but the poor girl did have huge breasts and because of such had a little trouble walking every now and then. Perhaps this was all just a defect and was bound to happen, but I sincerely hope it wasn’t caused by something we did (or didn’t) do.

With Joyce gone, that brings our flock of ten down to nine. I can’t say this is a bad thing, but I am saddened that of the three new birds, she had the most curiosity towards us and reminded me a lot of her adoptive mother, Kendra. I think Kendra thought so too, because while Harmony and White Witch Willow (the other two chicks she raised) were weaned early on, Joyce was by her side most of the time while they were in the coop. Even after they all went to roost in the henhouse last night, Kendra came back out as if she was looking for something for about ten minutes before finally heading back inside. Part of me wants to believe that she was looking for Joyce.