Lady, Cassie, & Maddie

by Caleb
(Iowa USA)

My three little pickle chicks. Don't really know why I called them that.

Yesterday 04/21/22, my wife came home to find three of our four feathered family members dead in the yard.

At 3pm CST a fox came by. Our girls would hunt and peck in a fenced in yard during they day. They were always locked up tight from dusk till after dawn.

We knew there were risks to letting our girls "free-range" and we accepted those risks. Looking back, I wouldn't change anything, except their untimely demise.

I miss my girls. Now Opal is all alone and calling out for them. The feathers are still scattered, the pain is very real.

Eventually we will move on, but for now, I'm going to mourn the loss.

Good night girls.

My Sweet Pippen

by Kelly Trombley
(Potsdam, NY, USA)

My little Bantam, Pippin, died last week. I don't know why. She and her coop mates were all happy and healthy.

I found her in the morning, lying on her nest. She may have been egg bound? I don't know what else it could have been.

She was friendly and always came when called by name and let me hold and pet her. I can't believe she's gone and miss her everyday. 💔

Missing my sweet Easter Egger

by Angie
(Georgia)

I lost a member of the family today.

One of my sweet hens died unexpectedly overnight. The coop was secure, she showed no signs of injury or illness, and her girlfriends are fine – but it is a sad day.

My girls (10 of them) came to me as chicks and made my 2020 a little happier. When they were tiny they lived inside my home in a warmer made from a yeti cooler. Once they got old enough they were relocated to the coop where they had the run of the place.

They are free range and protected by my loving barn cat family during the day and secured at night in the coop to stay safe from predators.

I absolutely love being outside with them, they all run to me for scratches and they are just lovely to see in my backyard. Opening the coop door is one of my first priorities every morning.

My human family hasn’t always been great but my fur and feather babies have made many a day worth living.

I’ll miss counting to 10 every morning and evening just as much as her siblings will miss their friend.

I gave her the best life possible, complete with treats and love. It is what it is but I sure wish my animals could live forever.

To Madge

by Ro
(UK)

She was so lovely and she's gone too soon. I will always remember her soprano warbling and how she would greedily jump up at me when I brought in her breakfast.

The other chickens used to bully her sometimes. She was a bit of an underdog, smaller and frailer than the rest, but had so much character.

I will miss seeing her tomorrow at breakfast but will always feel very grateful to have had her in my life.

Remembering Roni

by Janet Maurath
(Cleveland Ohio U.S.A.)

I got her as a chick on August 16 of 2021. She was a beautiful Easter Egger and I named her Roni after a beloved friend I lost in 2012.

She had the same personality – very curious, loving and always wanted to be with me. She would peck at the kitchen door wanting me to come outside just to sit with her.

My beloved Hen Solo - the best cockerel there ever was

by Sarah
(Wales )

I am utterly, utterly heartbroken.

We raised you from an egg - seeing your little life form and hatch before our eyes. A perfect grey coloured little chick!

We thought you were a girl at first - calling you Monica, with your hatchmates being Rachel and Phoebe and Dotty.

Watching you grow from a tiny chick to a glorious rooster was a pleasure. You were one of 3 cockerels and it was you that we chose to keep.

You were our only Silkie - crowing last of all. A bit of a misfit - your wings never allowed you to fly, your beak wonky. But you looked after your hens - a harem just for you - so protective and a gorgeous ivory white bird.

You healed a broken leg, a lost claw and gave it your all.

We didn’t have you anywhere near long enough and I feel so cheated. You deserved a long life.

You were always my favourite - a big powderpuff of fluffiness.

You loved the sun and would bask in it when given the chance.

Corn was your favourite food - that and Watermelon!

Thank you for being the soul that you were.

Fly high my sweet boy - we love you. 💔

My beautiful Mabel

by Kendra
(CA)

Mabel was such a sweetheart and she loved her sisters. She always wanted to be around her family, and if she was alone she would cry out.

She was also incredibly smart and was the first to explore and figure out her way around. She would put her beak on my nose when I would hold her and talk to her. I would also hear her little feet running after me to see what I was doing.

She was an escape artist and adventurous, and so loving and lovable. When she was a baby she was usually the first to fall asleep on me. She laid her last egg yesterday.

I loved her and this morning I found her face down in the coop. She was 10 months old and I am heart-broken, as are my husband and I'm sure her sisters are, too.

I hope it wasn't anything I did wrong because this is the first time I've raised chickens and I try so hard.

I know my beautiful, smart, sweet girl is in heaven because that's the only place a good girl like her would go. I hope she knows just how much she was loved.

Fancy Hat will be missed

by Matt
(Lugoff, SC USA)

She was hand-raised by a precocious little girl in Lexington, SC, who loved each of her feathered wards. Her HOA told her to "get rid of the birds", so she found my farm where they (4 hens) were re-homed to.

We loved the birds and took a special liking to Fancy Hat (an Appenzeller with crazy head feathers). She ran to us and bowed before we picked her up for "chicken snitches" (human-chicken hugs and 1-on-1 attention).

She will be missed by all who experienced her.

To my beloved Big Red

by Gisella
(Evansville, WI )

My beautiful Big Red is what we called her. She was a Buff Orpington we hand fed and raised around us as her sisters.

She was sweet, kind and super gentle. She never argued with her peers. She was a well behaved, loving, big teddy bear chicken.

On Sunday we found her lifeless, laying on her favorite dust bath spot with no signs of injury or predator attack.

I lost my posture and I couldn't believe my eyes my little sweet angel was lying dead.

I wanted to share my feelings with many people that has become attached to their beloved birds.

I can't recover from her loss. I ask God to give me peace because she meant so much to me.

Rest in peace my beloved Red. I will meet you sometime soon.

Hedwig

by Aaron
(Euclid,Oh,US)

In March of 2016 I got Hedwig. We got Hedwig as a baby and I got my own chicken named Hedwig.

We had her inside for about a year then we put them outside, inside of a coop. She was a Buff Orpington chicken. When I got home from school she would always run over to see me. Hedwig was the most docile chicken I ever knew, she would let you pick her up and play with her. She loved to get fed treats.

She was so my chicken! She is named after a book that I love. One day when I got home from school I didn't see her but I saw her feathers. I looked up in the sky he feathers were attached to trees, poles and fences. Then I called my mom and dad and they came home from work right away.

She got taken by a hawk.

The chicken has a lasting impact on me and my family, when we see a dead chicken that reminds us of her.

If I could say a few words to her now I would say I LOVE YOU, YOU ARE THE BEST CHICKEN I EVER KNEW. Or in her language, cluck,cluck,cluck,cluck,cluck.

Winston

by Heather
(Boyd, TX)

Winston was the sweetest rooster. He let chicks that didn’t have a mother hen, stay under his wing for warmth. He let me pick him up and was always kind to the hens.

We are so sad, but thankfully I just hatched one of his sons so his memory will live on.

Maggy

by J
(South Africa )

Maggy was a chick who I bought for my rescue chicken, Meryl. Meryl unfortunately presented with fowl pox symptoms. This then passed onto Maggy.

They were still too young to get vaccines done, so all I could do was try clean the wounds a bit. Unfortunately Maggy stopped eating properly and she succumbed to the fowl pox virus.

She loved to climb onto my arm and snuggle, and her favorite snacks were raw oats and crickets. She'd get so excited to see the critters.

R.I.P Maggy, Meryl and I will both miss you loads. Sorry you didn't get to lay your first egg.

The little black hen.

It was 5:00 in the morning, I was going for a daily check-up on my broody hen, Blackie. It was day 21 and I was expecting some chicks.

I peered inside the bush and saw 5 little peepers, 3 whites and 2 blacks. All of the chicks were a cross between a Cinnamon Queen roo and a Jago hen. What made her different from the others was her tendency to be near me.

She died just before her birthday by a car crash. A careless driver sped too fast and hit her while she was returning to the coop.

I was the only one that felt heartbroken, and if I can talk to her one more time my words would be, "Have a nice life in Heaven".

A 9 yr old girl with a mother named Sarah.

Chica!

by Rosemary
(Bronx)

Chica came to us when she was only two days old. She was the fourth chick in our order of three chicks.

You see, Chica was the extra chick sent to us from our mail order. We didn’t know what breed Chica was because you only get the information of the breeds you order.

I immediately went to the internet and search for her breed. To us, she seemed like a Speckled Sussex. She was adorable!

The first to jump out of the brooder, then first to jump out from the top hatch of the coop. Also, the first to jump on the fence. Finally the first to jump on the window gates.

She was sweet and loved to peck at freshly sliced pumpkin. She started to lay eggs recently, since turning 22 weeks old, and was doing well with it too.

Not sure what happened, but she passed today. Must have happened early morning hours while we were asleep. Sitting still on her nest away from her sisters. No breath left in her. Just sitting pretty.

I looked up all sorts of sudden chicken death info, but she didn’t show signs of anything I read.

We are heart broken and will never forget Chica! She was one of our first four chickens. We love you Chica!

Rosemary, a wonderful hen.

by Angela Toepelt
(Doty, Wa, USA)

I bought Rosemary from Tractor Supply last June as chicks along with 2 other Easter Egger pullets. I am a first time chicken owner so I was very excited to get these chicks to add to my other 5 chickens I recently had gotten.

I raised her and one of the other chicks. One had died shortly after I got them. So I babied the remaining 2 and got them used to being held and to eat from my hand.

She recently started to follow me everywhere when I would let them all out to free range. She would hop up to peck at the bag of dried meal worms in my hand and peck at my shoes while I collected eggs.

She laid beautiful green eggs and was one of my favorites because she seemed to have a little bit of a personality.