Patty died but chicks on the way

Our Partridge Rock hen, Patty, died on Friday. It was over 100 degrees that day, I believe, and it may have been the heat. If not the heat, then I have no idea. These things just happen sometimes   I don’t remember her acting strangely, but I might have missed something. The hot weather continues and the rest of the chickens mostly just stay in the shade. Egg production is down, too, in this heat.

Violet has been setting on eggs for a week now and has two weeks to go. I hope she makes it. I haven’t seen her come out to eat or drink, but she would typically only do that once a day and I might be missing it. She was setting for about two or three weeks before we gave her eggs to hatch, so there is a possibility that she will give up just before these eggs are ready to hatch. If that happens, I will try to incubate them and hope Violet will still be interested in raising them. Today Gertie decided to lend some moral and physical support.

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The ‘new’ birds, meaning the ones we bought or raised this spring are now as big as some of the mature hens, although the new hens are still a couple of months away from laying. They are very handsome birds. There are certainly a few boys among them, but none have offered up a cock-a-doodle-do yet, so we can’t be sure.