Our little Maggie has died.
I doubt I’ll be writing obituaries for all the chickens we’ll ever own, but these first six are special. It’s been an absolute joy to have them in the backyard, and the time spent with them has been, and continues to be, a great learning experience.
Maggie was an interesting chook – she was the most hen-pecked of the flock, the last to start laying and the first to stop. She had big yellow legs that distinguished her from the others, and she was always flighty and nervous – whereas the others would climb all over Pete and settle in happily for a cuddle, Maggie didn’t like to be held.
In her prime, she was the largest hen in the flock, and quite dominant. It was nice watching her having her moment of power after the hard time the other girls had given her. She laid lovely big, occasionally huge, brown eggs.
In the latter part of her life, she started laying eggs with a dodgy shell, a common problem for ISA browns as they grow older. Whereas our dominant hen Queenie died very suddenly after trying to lay a large soft-shell egg that cracked inside her, Maggie managed to get them out, but the effort wore her out immensely. We thought we’d lose her on two previous occasions, but each time she recovered to soldier on for another day.
She’d been in poor form for a couple of months before she died – she didn’t appear to be in any pain (which is usually obvious with chickens, as they hunch their backs and tense up), but she wasn’t quite right. She took to sleeping in the nesting box, because she couldn’t fly up to the roost any more. Every night, Pete would take her out of the box and settle her up on the roost beside the other hens. When she was soiled from laying a soft egg, we would clean her up as gently as we could, with warm water and detergent.
In her final days, we tried to tempt her with all her favourite foods – corn, leftover steak, zucchini, sorrel – but she just wasn’t interested. Last night she was lying on the ground in a part of the dome that we couldn’t reach in the dark, and this morning she was gone. It’s a little sad, but it’s a good thing too, because she really wasn’t well.
Google tells me that the average lifespan of an ISA brown is only 2 – 3 years, although some will occasionally live much longer. We’d like to think that our girls have a good life with us, even though it’s not for very long.
So now there are four. Harriet, Bertha, Francesca and Rosemary – all are in fine health and laying sporadically. They’re 3 years old now, but still going strong!
R.I.P. Maggie
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
sorry to hear of your loss of Maggie Celia
I am sorry too dear Celia… Love, nia
Sorry to read that Maggie has passed on, but it sounds like she had a good life and she was well cared for. A lot of hens never have to joy.
Vale Maggie.
So sorry, Celia. I was sad the day we sent our chickens to a better place – mum decided not to keep any more and they had stop laying good eggs, so we sent them to someone who keeps a lot of them :D
Oh dear. Poor old Maggie. If breaks your heart when your pets die. I bet your whole house is sad tonight.
So sad to lose a pet, and I know your chicks are real pets for you, part of the family…
You gave her a wonderful life… I wonder if the other chicks notice her absence…
It is the first obituary I have ever read for a chicken, life is full of firsts, even if it is death. I will remember your careful husbandry of her for the day when I get to keep some of my own.
Chickens do really become pets. We had two Croad Langshan batams, we called them the old ladies, they lived to be 12 and 13. Each winter we’d think maybe this will be their last winter but they just went on and on.
Cynthia in UK
So sorry to learn you lost Maggie, I too wondered if the other chicks noticed her absence..
She had a lovely life with you Celia RIP Maggie
Celia I am sorry to hear about dear Maggie’s passing. Our pets become like friends and its always such a shock when they leave us.
Oh No – Sorry to hear about Maggie! Hard to lose a friend and companion:(
Sorry to hear about Maggie Celia. I’ve found that Isa Browns tend to live longer in backyard situations. It’s not unusual to get 5 (or more) years out of them. I bought some ex-battery Isas (I just felt so sorry for them), with no expectation of eggs, I just wanted them to live out their lives in a good place. To my surprise they are the best layers I have and they’re still going strong 3 years later. I always love to hear stories like yours, where the animals live long and happy lives…
Hope yours is a great New Year. Cheers.
Thank you all. It is a little sad, but we’re quite philosophical about it. We always knew the chooks came with a short lifespan, and we do our best to make sure they have a great life in our backyard.
And re the other chickens – no, I don’t think any of them have noticed at all. :)
Meaghan, I think you’ve been lucky – according to our friend Steve the vet, ISA browns commonly succumb to reproductive problems like Queenie and Maggie did. Bertie’s also had issues in the past – it’s possible that the clutch we bought were not as genetically strong – luck of the draw, I guess.
We talked about getting pure breeds next time around, but we like the ISAs very much – they’re a friendly chicken, they lay consistently, and they don’t get broody.
It’s interesting isn’t it… It’s such a trade-off with the Isas. Lots of eggs but reproductive problems. I think you’re right in that we’ve been lucky and it may be a ‘rose coloured glasses’ thing on my part. All of our purebred chooks are a pain in the proverbial. We’re running Light and Buff Sussex, Araucanas, Wyandottes, Hylines (another great cross-bred) and Pekins. The Isas win hands-down for ease of management.
Wish I lived closer to you as I’d be happy to give you some pure pullets.
Meaghan, that’s really kind of you, thank you, but I think we’d probably still go with ISA browns next time. I know they don’t live a long time, but I love their temperament, and I figure if we can give them a few glorious years of feasting and comfort, then surely that’s a good thing. In a way your comment about purebreds being a pain in the rear helps reinforce that for me – I really want to LIKE our chooks, and I doubt I’d do that if I was getting pecked every time I tried to collect the eggs! :)
Poor old Maggie, but she lived a very happy, very spoilt life indeed. A very pampered little friend and I’m so sorry she’s gone sweetie. xox
Thanks Becca.. xx
You brought tears to my eyes with your love & care for your very lucky chickens. Am really enjoying all your posts. Kay
Thanks Kay! We love having the girls in the backyard!
Farewell Maggie – your backyard chooks are being so well looked after compared to their factory farmed brethren. You’re doing such a good thing…
This is such a sad story. Poor Maggie! I’m so sorry for you, Celia, because I know it’s easy to become very attached to a pet and see your chickens as being more than just ‘layers’. What a lovely personality she had. I hope the other four girls aren’t unsettled by the shrinking numbers. xx
Sorry to hear about your loss, Celia. It’s sad to see them go when they’ve laboured so hard for us, isn’t it. We lost one last week. We don’t give them names any more (we’ve got 10 at the moment), but our sweet girl was clearly crook and had to be helped along with the axe. Not a pleasant experience for my normally be-suited professional husband, but a necessary one.
So sad to lose another of your beloved girls.
Charlie, Mel, thank you!
Elaine, thank you, but they’ll all go soon enough – they just don’t live that long.
Amanda, it’s a little hard with this first lot. Not giving them names is probably a good idea, although I doubt we’ll manage that. We talked about euthanasing Maggie when it became clear that she wasn’t going to get better, but we just couldn’t bring ourselves to do it when she wasn’t in obvious pain. She was quite a lot of work at the end – all of Pete’s rural uncles would have been appalled with us for fussing over a chicken. :)
RIP Maggie and Celia you are quite right… she had a wonderful life. There aren’t many chickens who belong to such a loving family and are treated like royalty.
Sad news Celia, chooks are such hard little workers aren’t they?
I guess this is the first time I have read such a wonderfully told story about a useful family animal who indeed was so much more . . . Maggie had a life most of our feathered friends would have envied . . .
Claire, I hope she had a good life, she certainly was a funny old chook!
Jane, they really do – we wouldn’t have a garden without them!
Eha, thank you – she wasn’t really a pet, but she wasn’t just livestock either. Somewhere in the middle, I think. Poor old love, she was still trying to eat right up to the end, but she just didn’t have the appetite..
Sorry to hear that Celia :(
Celia, we’ve had chookies for over 10 years now and get very attached to some of them. I have had many varieties but the Isa Brown are certainly the easiest to care for and regular layers. We have ten at present, five are close to 5 years old, 5 nearly 3 years and only recently have we had less than 6-8 eggs per day, even through winter, and I supplied 4 friends with weekly eggs. I do have one which is blind and I keep separate because she was really being picked on. Its a jungle out there, you know!! Hint – we had Plymouth Rocks once – beautiful black and white striped heritage breed, big eaters and very poor layers. When I next get chookies I am looking into rehoming cage hens to give them something of a life after what they go through. Love your blog. Joy
I wish for a world where all chickens live such rich lives. <3
Maz
Nic, Maz, thank you.. xx
Joy, thanks for your advice. It must be hard work keeping the blind chook separate – the things we do! :) Rehoming cage hens is a very kind thing to do, but we find that when they stop laying regularly, they also stop digging, and we really need them to keep rotovating the garden for us. I suspect we will just get ISA browns again, they really are so easy going! :)
So sorry, Celia, to hear of Maggie’s passing. Considering how poorly billions of other chickens are treated in the world, she was one very lucky bird to have come under your care.
Thanks John. x
I’m so sorry Celia – what a sad loss.
Thanks Kari..
Farewell Maggie, may you find a perch somewhere warm and snuggly where there is always lovely food and someone to stroke the nape of your neck xx
She wouldn’t like that Jo, she didn’t like to be touched! Funny old bird, she was. :) xx
I’m sorry to hear your sad news, Celia. I remember lying awake at night worrying about my beautiful chickens.
Jo, I was fretting about them today in the heat, but they seemed to have coped really well! x
Very sorry to hear about Maggie, Celia. Chooks are such special creatures with their own distinct personalities, I can indeed understand your feeling of loss. Hugs xx.
Thanks Chris. I’m grateful in a way that she died of natural causes, so many of our friends (yourself included) have lost birds to foxes. Mind you, losing a chicken to a fox is a natural cause, I guess. Hope all is well. xx
That’s exactly what happened to a couple of our chooks. It’s sad to see them decline, they look so vulnerable. But your little flock looked so healthy and happy Celia – you and Pete are very good chook-herders.
How very sad Celia, so sorry. Sending you a big hug from SA.
:-) Mandy xo
I’m saddened with you. While growing up (5 – 10 years old) on our chicken farm, one of my chores was to go from to each hen house and collect the dead chicks each morning – we’d lose a large number each day for the first month or so – as a kid, I’d think this was not a good thing to assign to someone my age, but later I realized it was another introduction to the real world that farm kids get early on, that maybe others never really get. On the other end of the ‘chicken life’ scale, every 3 years or so, my father would sell all the older chickens to Campbell’s Soup, so at least I never saw that mass die-off!
Jan and Mandy, thank you! x
Doc, that’s a hard job for a small child!
She looks cute,you really take care of your chickens,
Maggie lived a fine life…lucky chook.
What a lovely ode to your died beloved chicken! :)
Sponge, Deb and Sophie, thank you! :)
I feel as if I know them all since following you now for a while. I am sorry you lost her…May she be pecking happily in chicken heaven!
It seems the way people treat their chooks says a lot about them… I love that you valued Maggie alive and also now she’s gone enough to celebrate her life by sharing it with us :)
Gee you’re nice, ED. :) Thank you.. x
Aww I remember when my first chicken died of heat stroke I was gutted. It was nearly 40 degrees and she was in the coop in the shade. The look on my husband’s face the next day when he saw a portable evaporative cooler outside the chook pen was priceless. “They’re chooks, Maureen!” We never had another heat stroke event. :) They’d go inside, stand in front of the wire screen and flap their wings in the cool air. I knew they’d like it. LOL RIP, Maggie.
M, we’ve had the fan up next to the dome as well, when it’s been too hot. Pete won’t let me bring them into the house! :)