My sweet little (big) Hei Hei....

[AudraBrooke]

My heart is really sad today. My husband and I have had chickens since March this year and it's our first time. We wanted them for pets/layers. We didn't do good enough research at first and one of our girls ended up being a meat chicken, a cornish cross.

We never had intentions of raising meat chickens and I hadn't even realized that there were breeds like her...believe me I've done a lot of research since.

We've been doing the best we could for her. She seemed to be doing pretty dang well other than she seemed uncomfortable with the heat. I made curtains for the coop/run so that she could have plenty of shaded area and I brought ice water out to them every day so she could cool off...but the past two days have been above 100 outside and it was too much for her. I got home on my lunch break today and she had passed. My heart hurts that she suffered...but I'm trying to keep in my head that we gave her a happy life for the time she was here and she had longer to enjoy it than she might have elsewhere.

The reality of the situation is that I could tell she was not happy with the heat and she wasn't as happy as I'd seen her. I was trying to find someone I knew that would want her and that could process her for themselves....so her end was coming anyway. But I just feel really guilty that she suffered today until she passed. Maybe I'm being a little too sensitive about it but I love my girls.

My husband is of course out of town today so I had to put on my big girl pants and get her out of the coop on my lunch break so that she could be left alone. I think we'll probably bury her somewhere in our backyard tonight.

 

[Bookworm0124]

Sorry for your loss.

 

[NewBoots]

I am sorry for your loss, but you can know that she hit the jackpot in being seen to by you. In most cases, a Cornish X has a mighty poor life. But not your Hei Hei. Like my DP says, you can't save them all but to the ones you do save (and make no mistake, you did save her) you made all the difference in the world.

 

[NoodlesMama]

Sorry for your loss but you gave her the best life you could.

 

[melanie_s]

Don't feel bad. We are all learning and we all make mistakes. You did everything you could and you sound like an awesome chicken keeper. Out of curiosity, how old was she when she passed away?

 

[goldysgirl]

I'm so sorry about your girl. You were so nice to take such good care of her. She was a lucky bird.

 

[AudraBrooke]

Don't feel bad. We are all learning and we all make mistakes. You did everything you could and you sound like an awesome chicken keeper. Out of curiosity, how old was she when she passed away?

She was a few days past 19 weeks old. The weekend before I had gotten really curious about how much she weighed compared to my others...they were all born within a day or two of each other. I weighed my Rhode Island Red and she was exactly 3 pounds and Hei Hei was 14.2 pounds!

 

[AudraBrooke]

Thanks everyone for your nice responses. I agree that she came to the best home she could have! Her favorite treat was frozen watermelon.

My husband buried her beside the coop that night and my other three seem to not notice a change. I was worried my EE would miss her a lot. When they were all chicks and Hei Hei got her tail feathers pulled out, I tried to separate her out alone to heal and she and my EE peeped LOUDLY in protest until I let them stay together. My EE also slept on the floor of the coop with Hei Hei instead of perching with the others at night. I was glad to see her perching that first night without Hei Hei...but I did go in there and look at them last night and she was sleeping on the floor again. I guess time will tell what she will end up preferring!

 

[MomJones]

Thanks everyone for your nice responses. I agree that she came to the best home she could have! Her favorite treat was frozen watermelon.

My husband buried her beside the coop that night and my other three seem to not notice a change. I was worried my EE would miss her a lot. When they were all chicks and Hei Hei got her tail feathers pulled out, I tried to separate her out alone to heal and she and my EE peeped LOUDLY in protest until I let them stay together. My EE also slept on the floor of the coop with Hei Hei instead of perching with the others at night. I was glad to see her perching that first night without Hei Hei...but I did go in there and look at them last night and she was sleeping on the floor again. I guess time will tell what she will end up preferring!

Sounds like Hei Hei had the best possible life. I don't want/believe in having freak hybrids like Cornish Crosses. However, the 12 supposedly white leghorn/light brahmas I thought I bought from Tractor Supply last week could very well be Cx's

 

[TiaMaria413]

My EE also slept on the floor of the coop with Hei Hei instead of perching with the others at night...but I did go in there and look at them last night and she was sleeping on the floor again.

Oh this makes me sad. I’m sorry to hear about your hen dying. I’m glad to hear that you gave her a fun life while she was alive though. As many others said, most meat birds have unfortunate and terrible lives. Yours wasn’t lucky. I have a cornish hen too. This summer she had a lot of trouble as well, panting, and unable to cool off. I was sure I’d find her dead one day too. We had slightly less hot days that you at 90 & 95 degrees. She didn’t like frozen watermelon the way yours did though. I tried it several times.
Did your other chicken eventually join the others on the perch?