The Henopause

One of our rescue hens Patti is poorly again....

How do you spot a poorly chook? last out of the henhouse in the morning, which is unusual. Chickens are prey animals so mask illness for as long as possible.

Back to the chook.
Secondly, she was hiding most of the day under the cover of the bushes but most importantly not greedily scoffing breakfast or any extra snacks. Hens are always busy, just going about their business. I call it 'chookin' aboot', so a chicken duvet day was required. My loving family think I'm mad, and maybe I am, they also suspect that Patti has sussed that if she looks a bit sad, she will get extra special treatment. However, the reason we took on four rescue hens was to give them a better quality of life. I feel a huge duty of care for their welfare and if that is being compromised then hard decisions will have to be faced.
Now Patti the poorly hen has had health issues before, earlier in the summer, she was laying soft eggs. Since this last expensive episode she has been back to normal enjoying life to the full, just no eggs!
Battery hens are freaks of nature, descended from the wild red jungle fowl which has the best latin name ever (Gallus gallus) and are the original undomestic form of all hens. They come from Southeast Asia, timid shy birds that roost in trees. These wild hens lay only 10 to 15 eggs per year based on the season. While Patti who is an ex-commercial hen and they can lay up to 300 eggs a year but are deemed unviable at 18 months to 2 years when eggs shape becomes less uniform and health issues can begin to show.  In short their fertility has been dialled up to the maximum by selective breeding and there is an animal husbandry cost.

Initially, I had put this down to darker colder morning, although we still haven't had a frost this year, the swallows have flown away and their aerial displays have been replaced by skeins of geese honking their way across the sky. Other autumn signs being leaves beginning to turn from green to spectacular golds. Hawthorn berries and rose hips turning crimson yet another indicator of the season.

After her day indoors where I tempted her to eat something with a tasty mixture of jam, mealworms and sunflower seeds, she was still looking as miserable, so a car journey to the small animal hospital at The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary medicine beckoned. I expected the worst, but despite a thorough examination by a cast of thousands - well four vet students and an actual vet. It was decided she examined fine having put on weight since her last illness episode, so despite my gloomy expectations, Patti lives on. Yet another bottle of anti-inflammatories and antibiotics later and another night in the kitchen. The diagnosis was that it could be another oviduct infection or simply running out of the finite number of eggs she was born with, the henopause. However the good news she is back to living her best chicken life.