This week I lost my eight-month-old Japanese Bantam hen. She died two days ago while sitting on three eggs - she was roosting over them as broodies do.
When I found her in the morning, her head was damp. I suspect a python got to her that morning. The rest of the flock in the cage - her mother and another rooster - were unharmed. I keep turning that over in my mind on how something can come in, take one bird, and leave the others untouched.
I'm disappointed, and I won't pretend otherwise. I only have two other young hens now, both under three years old, and this was supposed to be the year my flock grew back. Instead, repopulating has gotten harder with every loss. My two other older hens are still laying, but hatch rate has been zero this year.
The very, very old cage where these three chickens were kept is the problem, and I've decided I'm replacing it. Patching it has stopped feeling like maintenance and started feeling like uncertainty. The emotional and financial pain of that uncertainty is now more than the cost of a new cage. I'd rather spend money on a solution than keep spending it on hope.
Earlier this year I also lost a six-month-old hen to a cobra. Same story, different snake: one bird taken, the rest spared, and no clear warning beforehand.
I don't have a tidy lesson to close on. I'm sad about the hen, sad about the eggs, and tired of the setbacks. But I am replacing the cage, and I will take that as the one thing I can control.
Buy chicken cage from Amazon.com
(Note: An Amazon.com affiliate link)
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