Another burial

So when I got home from work I had the tear jerking task of burying another hen.  As I mentioned this morning, Cindy told me she found Ginger dead on the floor of the coop.  I told Cindy just the other night as I put the birds to bed I was thinking about how painful it was when we lost Kristen last year.

Ironically just like Kristen, Ginger was the runt of the flock and got the most abuse from the other birds.  Even more ironic is she made the same growling type noise that Kristen did and like Kristen, Ginger knew her name.  Every night when I put them to bed Ginger would fight through getting pecked by the other birds to get next to me on the perch, just so I would pet her a few times.  It was endearing.

So before I buried her I went inside to review the coop footage.  Somewhere around 3 AM Ginger simply looked like she was adjusting her position, slipped, fell of the back of the perch and must have landed in a way that broke her fragile neck.  We modified the perch in the past to avoid this exact scenario.  It now sits no more than two feet high but it doesn’t really matter, if a bird falls off the wrong way they are going to be in trouble.

I buried her in the backyard by myself which is what I actually prefer.  I’d rather be alone with my feelings of grief when we lose an animal which without fail invokes a strong emotional reaction.  I dug the hole extra deep, hoping to avoid desecration of her body by predators.  I covered it with a pile of palm fronds and other debris.

There is plenty of craziness going on in the world right now.  Losing sweet Ginger was a gut punch on top of it all.