Yurei

It’s always sad when a friend passes and today we’re sad at Ligaya Garden.

I found old Yurei, the Shadow, lifeless in the chook house yesterday morning. She’s by far the oldest chook to have lived here. We don’t know how old she is but we got her in to take some of the pecking order violence away from her daughter, Pappy.

Her name means ‘shadow’ as she was always scuttling around under things and hanging out in the background from the start. Being a Silkie, Youri was the smallest of our birds. We did get two other Silkies at the beginning but they only stayed a short time.

I always loved her waddle as she scurried down the path and the very dignified manner in which she received check-ups and diatomaceous earth dustings.

Yurei hasn’t laid an egg for 3 years now but that hasn’t stopped her from being my favourite. She had me well trained to make sure she always got some of the best food in the rush. She was always jostled out of the way by the bigger birds but soon learned that by staying out of the fracas and hanging back, she could be certain that I would throw her choice mealworms, grain or greens.

There’s been a bit of violence in the chook run over the last two days, Demeter has been mounting everyone in sight and the others have been quite vicious to each other. This kind of thing happens when the pecking order is being re-established. The other surely knew about Yurei’s upcoming passage. She’s been getting slower of late and not eating as much, even skipping feedings and staying in the warmth of the coop. I have noticed her wattle getting greyer of late too. The other girls haven’t been bossing her around as much either, that was something she always took in good grace and waddled calmly away from any effort at intimidation.