It is with sadness I must report that Young Korma Buff Cochin hen has passed away. This was not a casualty of the great raccoon war. She did not seem well last weekend and when I went to her I found that she had a prolapsed vent with an egg. She had tried to lay an egg that was just too big and her chicken uterus had prolapsed. I had read about this sort of thing happening with chickens, ( it's gruesomely called "blowout") but she had an egg that was still in the insides that were now on the outside.
She was made comfortable with clean straw in a separate cage to prevent the others from bothering her.

It was an unpleasent thing but I did make a couple of attempts to gently
push her insides back inside I realized that with the unlaid egg there was no way I could do this myself. There was also the option of trying to actually break the egg while it's in the insides ( now on the outside) then push the uterus back in and hope her body would absorb the egg, then slathering her back end with Preparation H to help it "close up"

I didn't feel like I could do this without hurting her further, plus as time went on she seem to grow weaker rather quickly. So after some though I decided to try to get her in to the vets in the morning but she did not live though the night. She is now buried in the back yard by the cornstalks.

Owning chickens is most definitely a learning experience, some of it not pleasant at all. Still I enjoy their funny antics ( ever seen a chicken eat cooked spaghetti?) and their eggs.

Miss Hannah is at the vets this week again. After her egg episode the vet decided that it would be best to have her spayed. She has come through the operation well and is recovering and will be back home tomorrow.

Cockatoo's and other parrots have very strong feet,they have the grip of death to help then stay perched in trees. It also comes in handy when you want to stay on your person. It took a vet and one assistant to pry her off of me when I dropped her off. She was not amused.