A runt chicken? Update.

Remember Penny?  Our little Rhode Island Red pullet that was so much smaller than her sisters?  Unfortunately, we now know how Penny’s story ends. 

One Sunday morning it was in the mid-30’s (the coldest we had seen up to that point) and when I went to the coop to let everyone out for the day Penny was laying on her back on the floor.  At first I thought she was dead, but when I looked again I saw her take a breath.  I rushed in to get her (in my nightgown, mud boots and husband’s flannel jacket – what a sight!).  She didn’t look injured, but was barely breathing.  We placed her in a box of packing peanuts in the kitchen while we tried to figure out what, if anything, we could do for her.



Little Josie stayed by her box for the longest time that day.



Being a chicken novice, I consulted my friends at Backyard Chickens to see what could be wrong.  Turns out, she likely got too cold and her body couldn’t get her temperature back up.  I broke out the hair dryer and she started moving around almost immediately.  We placed her in Josie’s kennel for the night, periodically giving her honey water and offering food and put a heat lamp on her. 

She started moving around and was looking perkier and stronger as the night went on.  The next morning she didn’t seem as strong and just after lunch she took her last little breath.  Hubz buried her along the woods in the backyard. 

We were definitely disappointed and sad to see her go, but this was a good learning experience for us newbie Chicken owners.  Hopefully we'll be better prepared to help the next one.