Bye Bye Bianco

Our bantam white leghorn hen named Bianco was bred on a farm in the

Western Australian town of Salmon Gums in late 2019.

Her bantam buff leghorn friend Buffy came to live with us at the same time.

Bianco and Buffy look very cute sitting in the nesting box together.

Bianco was going to be a poultry show bird, but she was sold to us to be our pet.

Shortly after Bianco moved to the Goldfields, the COVID pandemic stopped all

poultry shows and a fox devastated a majority of the flock on the farm in

Salmon Gums. Bianco and Buffy were lucky they were re-homed to be loved.

Bianco turned 3 years old last November and she was on the bottom

of the pecking order. Speckles (in the background) is the boss of the flock.

Bianco was a good egg layer. She laid about 5 small white eggs a week.

Bianco was an incredibly noisy hen.

Bianco was an extremely timid hen who ran fast like the roadrunner.

She ate a lot of food for a little hen because she burnt a lot of energy.

It took 2 years before Bianco would come close enough to Lydia to eat lettuce

out of her hand. Bianco was hard to take a photo of because she was so timid.

Bianco was very flighty which is typical of her breed.

Here she flies off the A-frame mobile coop whilst Buffy and Frenchy look on.

Lydia loves this photo of Bianco and Lexi.

Lexi is a full-size white leghorn hen and Bianco is a miniature version.

Bianco's nickname was 'LFC' = Little Fat Chicken and

Lexi's nickname is 'BFC' = Big Fat Chicken.

They became buddies after Buffy died.

Bianco started limping around lunchtime on 2nd March 2023.

The next morning, she was crawling around on her knees and couldn't

walk properly. We took Bianco to the vet for an emergency appointment.

She went downhill quickly and the vet suspected Marek's disease.

Lydia made the difficult decision for the vet to euthanise Bianco.

3rd March 2023 was a very sad day.

We will miss you Bianco.

May you be a happy hen forever.