2 April, 2011 
After hosing the byre out this evening, the Other Half and I went through to feed the chickens and call them back to their pen. As I was casting their feed down, the OH noticed that our oldest surviving hen, Peggy, was walking strangely. Peggy also looked lacklustre. I caught her fairly easy, which was telling in itself as she should have been very difficult to catch unless she specifically wanted to be held, which she didn’t.
Peggy’s problem was immediately apparent. She had a severe prolapse of the oviduct. If it had been a minor prolapse, I would have treated it by carefully pushing it back in with a finger, treating her with hemorrhoid cream and isolating her for a week. It was too severe, so she had to put down.
We’d had Peggy for six years. She was one of our first five chickens and our last Scots Grey Bantam. We kept bantams alongside the standard Scots Greys as the little hens are excellent sitters and mothers. The standard hens aren’t. Peggy has hatched and/or reared a couple of clutches of chicks every year, ably protecting them from hawks and magpies despite her diminutive size. She was also second only to the Duchess as senior hen—well, all the big hens knew her as mum so they weren’t going to argue with her. Peggy was also a real character: friendly, fussy and with a penchant for finding the highest possible roosts. She will be missed.
We bury ours and plant a tree, they grow very fast and remind us of our lovely hens. I never kill them unless they are sick, I know people who get rid of them when they stop laying regularly, we prefer to let them live a natural life if possible.
I am so sorry to hear that, I remember when I first found your blog and one of the first entries I read was one when she was protecting her babies and off a hawk. Wow, and she was about then three then I think.
I hope you will continue to have bantams, they are have so much character for such a little body. So many elderly hens seem to die so suddenly from everything from cancer to the prolapses. At least you got a chance to say goodbye.