Dead Hen Walking

We noticed last week that one of the white hens was lethargic. When a chicken sits in a nest box, it either means she's broody or sick and a sick chicken has a funny look about her eyes. This white hen was a friendly, busy bird so we knew she was sick.
We, terribly, started calling her the Dead Hen because every day we expected to go in to find her lifeless body lying on the floor but for the past week, she's been "fine". Sitting on the step outside in the sun one day last week seemed to perk her up.
But this afternoon, we finally lost one of our two Columbian Rocks. We had two, Beulah and Gabby, although we couldn't tell them apart. I'm a big fan of the Rock family of chickens -- Barred Rocks, Patridge Rock, the Columbian -- because they are calm and curious and not skittish. I like a chicken that doesn't freak out every time you go into the chicken coop.
In the spring or fall, I'm likely to look up from my cleaning of the gardens to find one of the Rocks scratching at the ground alongside me.
I'm sorry Beulah missed spring this year. It came too late for the Dead Hen.