Our Wee Olive - RIP

Poor wee Olive has died.  She has suffered from scaly leg mites ever since we got her, but apart from the last month it didn't seem to affect her life at all.  We have had her for 1 year and 10 months in our family and she has had a good life here with us.

This past month she has been limping a little and this last week she struggled more with descending the ramp from their home.  She stopped eating yesterday and when I was treating her feet I noticed she was wheezing, so I didn't think she had many days left.  But her death was announced by the head hen Rosie doing some flapping and jumping onto poor Olive to perhaps try to revive her?  Hens can be a bit mean sometimes.

We won't be getting anymore to replace her, so will be content with our family of four hens for now.
That is now our 6th hen to die, and it still breaks my heart, but not for as long as it did at first.  I guess I am getting used to the inevitability of unexplained and sudden illness taking hold of these little darling birds.  I know that they will all die at some stage.  So I get the privilege to find joy from them in our garden every day until then.