Two eggs . . . .now only two chickens

Yes, sad news I'm afraid.  Our Sid gave up on her happy life yesterday.  As always when you  think back you could say she wasn't quite her usual mischievous self the last few days and  I had asked Molly a couple of times what she'd done with Sid because they were always bumbling around together but yesterday Sid was pottering by herself while Molly and Elvis explored and inspected our work.  But not really anything obvious to worry about.  Then Bob went to shut them in the run while we went for a walk round the block and he had to coax Sid from under the trailer and when she got to the run she had a sort of fit and her comb turned blue and that was the end of that!

She was still being mischievous even after she died though!  When the other two died, they went stiff as boards really quickly.  Sid stayed floppy for ages though.  We had few minutes looking at her and saying 'Ahh, poor Sid', then Bob went and dug a hole and I carried her down to it and put her in the hole thinking it strange that she was still floppy and warm.  Then when it came time to cover her up we both had the horrible thought that perhaps she wasn't actually dead!  What if we buried her and she was still alive?  Of course she was dead, but there was just that niggle.  So, we took her back out again and laid her down and went for our walk.  When we got back she had gone stiff and we both felt a bit silly . . . . . she's a little monkey!

I think we'll probably miss Sid more than the others.  Right from day one she has always been a real character, always the one to try things first, get into mischief or sticky situations and just so funny with it.  Not long after we got them, Sid was being quite nasty to Molly so we shut her in the workshop so she could have a quiet think and mend her ways.  After about 10 minutes we went to let her out.  We couldn't find her anywhere.  We could just hear soft little chicken noises.  We looked behind the bandsaw, under the bench, in all the boxes, everywhere.  Then I looked up, and there she was, just about as high up as she could get in the roof.  Stuck!  I really don't know how she got up there and she really didn't know how she was going to get down!  We wanted her to find her own way down as part of her personal development programme, but in the end we had to put a piece of wood as a ramp from where she is in the picture to the beam and she walked down that, but she wouldn't jump down onto the bench.  So I held up piece of wood and she climbed onto that and I lowered her down onto the bench (like a chicken stairlift!) and finally she found her way down from there.  What a palaver!

Another time she went missing completely.  Laura, Bob and I looked for her for about an hour and a half in the pouring rain.  All the way up the lane, down the track, all over the woods either side, in all the barns, the house, the caravan, under cars and trailers . . . .everywhere at least four times, calling out to her, but no sign at all.  Just about to give up, we were all standing in the wriggly barn wondering what to do and thinking about foxes when an upturned washing up bowl moved along the floor.  Yep, there she was.  The bowl had been propped up against a box and she'd obviously knocked it down on top of herself.  Then I guess because it was dark under there, she must have gone to sleep which is why she didn't answer when we called.  She looked quite indignant as she stalked away wondering why we were laughing at her!

Yep, we'll miss her!