Farewell To The Little Red Hens

For several weeks the eggs we collected from our little flock of hens were dirty, sticky, and coated with bits of eggshell. Cleaning the eggs was a messy task. Every evening Dennis would bring in a basket of eggs and say, “Another broken egg today.” Finally, when the nests themselves began to smell bad, we knew something had to be done.

I had a strong suspicion that the two red sex-link hens were laying the fragile eggs. Red sex-link chickens are a cross between two breeds, white leghorn and Rhode Island reds. They are called sex-links because, unlike other baby chicks, baby red sex-link males and females look quite different and can easily be sorted out. The red sex-link hens are rather small birds, but they lay jumbo brown eggs. No matter how much oyster shell we provided, the tiny birds’ bodies were so depleted of calcium that their eggs often broke when we picked them up or when other hens got into the nest to lay their eggs.

Dennis decided to isolate the two red hens from the flock to see if the fragile eggs were indeed theirs. He picked the birds off the roost at night and put them into a separate room of the chicken house together with food and water. Sure enough, no more broken eggs showed up in the nests and the red hens laid their fragile eggs in a little separate nest.

After the little red hens had been isolated for three days Dennis began to feel sorry for them so he opened the door to the outside so they could get fresh air and sunshine. Out they rushed, happy to be outside again. They roamed the yard looking for bugs.

These little hens were very tame and enjoyed being around people. When either Dennis or I went outside, they followed us everywhere. Dennis even allowed them to follow him into the fenced-off garden, where they continued their pursuit of insects but ignored all the growing vegetables.

Last night Dennis got home late and when he went to close up the chickens for the night he found a flurry of red feathers, but no little red hens. Obviously some predator had killed them and carried their bodies away.

We feel sad to have their lives end this way, but we’re glad that for two glorious weeks they got to be free-ranging chickens. This morning I ate their last jumbo egg for breakfast. Its shell was paper thin.

We remember these sweet birds fondly, but never again will we add red sex-links to our flock.

Copyright 2014 by Shirley Domer