Death of a Chicken

A few weeks ago we (my wife and son to be honest, I'm too squeamish) killed one of our chickens which had not been laying for ages, and was starting to show signs of discomfort. That was less sad than the death last week of another of the original three birds. She had also stopped laying, but seemed ok and we were content to let her carry on. Then out of the blue I opened the hen-house to collect the eggs and found her dead on the laying box.

My environmental side says both birds were wasted (we couldn't bring ourselves to eat the one killed, and naturally wouldn't cook the one that had died), but another part of me found it rather sad that the one that pegged out overnight was found where maybe she had been trying to lay an egg, something long since beyond her. There are plenty in the workforce who in a way will meet the same fate.