A Sad Day

Daisy

Today was the last time we'd get 6 eggs in one day. Dear Daisy laid an egg today and then died sometime later. My heart is broken.

When I let the girls out to free-range in our yard, only 4 came out. The Orphingtons, Forsythia and Daisy, did not. I checked the egg boxes, fully expecting to find Daisy in hers. She wasn't there. I checked the other boxes and found Forsythia. I looked on the roost bars, under the coop, and the attached run. No Daisy. Then I looked in the "tunnel", a breezeway connecting the bottom of the coop to the run. There was sweet Daisy, she could've been sleeping. Oh my girl. 

Daisy was a gentle giant, so sweet. She'd allow you to pick her up and sometimes she'd settle in your arms. She'd hop up on my chair and come visit in the yard. Daisy was inquisitive and yet scared of an umbrella. She got along with the other girls as well as people who came to meet the chickens. 

I've tried to think of what we did wrong. Why did she die? Was she too hot? My sister offered the following explanation, "Daisy wasn't too hot or too cold. Just a daisy. A beautiful, sweet flower that only comes for part of the year and cannot last." We named all of our chickies after flowers. This sentiment will apply to all of them.

Some may say getting chickens was crazy, but the girls have enriched our lives. We seek joy now and have absolutely found joy in owning chickens. 

After I buried Daisy in the back of the yard, I went back to the coop to retrieve the egg basket I'd stashed. Forsythia was in the egg box with the basket. There were only three eggs in the basket, I would have sworn there were 4-5 eggs in it. I looked under Forsythia and found 2 eggs. She must have tipped over the basket, removed 2 eggs, and tip the basket back up. I left the eggs under her and within 15 minutes, she laid her egg. She laid her egg along side Daisy's.