Hen Chronicles: And then there were only two

Stella

And then there were two.

One of our three chickens died last Friday: Stella, our New Hampshire Red, who was less than two years old. We don't know what happened, really. From what I've been reading, it's not all that uncommon for seemingly healthy chickens to die for no obvious reason.

Stella was hunkered down, alone, in the open area under the coop that morning, which was unusual. I was worried, but not wanting to panic, I tried to convince myself that she was stressed out because she'd been molting and she didn't have all of her new feathers yet.

Later that morning, I found her lying down with her legs stretched out behind her, which is a very disconcerting pose I've never seen before in a live chicken and I hope never to see again. She kept opening and closing her mouth, as if she was having trouble breathing. She tried to stand up, but couldn’t.

I went into the house to call my wife at work, and when I came back out about five minutes later, Stella was gone. Despite the season, I was able to bury her in the yard, thanks to our recent spate of relatively warm weather here in Maine.

It's hard to tell how the other two hens feel about this. Chickens are very social animals, and our mini-flock has been a trio ever since we bought all three hens from the same seller in April. At least Nala and Snow still have each other. (Knock on wood.) When I locked up the coop Friday night, the two of them were side by side on the roost, snuggled up together.
 
I suppose we humans don't have the same relationship with hens that we have with cats and dogs because chickens don't live in our homes and it's easier to anthropomorphize mammals than birds. Chickens are livestock, after all. But for some of us, they are pets as well. We love them. And we mourn their loss.

Stella was a beautiful girl. About a month after we bought the hens, I described her in a post as "quiet, tranquil and friendly." I wrote then that Stella "welcomes contact with humans, and seems to enjoy being held. She even carries herself with something resembling dignity, if that word can be applied to a hen."

We all know death is a part of life. Gail Damerow writes in The Chicken Encyclopedia that “chickens can die at any age - sometimes suddenly - of natural causes.” But knowing that doesn’t make the parting any easier. Even if the pet we’ve lost is, as I’m sure some people would callously put it, “only a chicken.”