sweet hazel

The evening of our halloween party, we noticed Hazel making her way slowly to the coop, long after the crowd had piled in. Dante went to her and she didn't run away -- first sign of trouble. He said she didn't seem right, and brought her to me. I tucked her inside my coat for a little bit to warm her up as it was a brisk night, and she fell asleep. Second sign of trouble. Normally she would have been struggling to get away. Having guests to feed and entertain, we put hazel in the coop and I figured I'd keep an eye on her the next day. Sadly, when Dante went out to the coop the next morning, he found poor little Hazel's cold body on the floor of the coop. We buried her out in the back near the compost heap, a particularly popular area of the yard. Dante and Lucia made a lovely gravestone and decorated it with fall flowers and berries. Goodbye Hazel :o(

Since all of the chickens we've lost have been "Dante's" Lucia decided to share Little Tink (the last chick born from our incubator -- Hazel was one of the first two incubator babies out) with him. Feeling low from Hazel's demise, Dante brought Little Tink in to snuggle for a while. She enjoyed the cornbread crumbles still under the chair from our little friend Ben's meal at the party the night before. But she was too distracted by the strange state of being back inside the house, so after a little while, we released her back into the wild. I love her puffy auracana cheek muffs...