What a nerve wracking day the hens had yesterday and an eyeopening one for me. As you all know I lost a Rhode Island Red the day after Christmas...leaving me with 9 hens instead of 10. I have been relatively comfortable with letting the girls run about the property, only checking on them time to time with a treat and then making sure they all check themselves into the coop at dusk. Yesterday, being a Holiday, I was able to stay home and lounge about doing homework interrupted by impulses to go outside and watch my hens in all their glory as they have never seen snow before and we were getting quite a bit of it. It was around 2pm and I went out to give them a snack and noticed a few were making loud warning sounds from the coop. My first thought was that they were announcing eggs had been laid, they become extremely boisterous with every egg they pop out.
1st red flag, the girls were not in the yard. It's the middle of the afternoon, surely they weren't all in the coop. 2nd red flag, the coop only had 4 hens in the laying boxes. As I called out for the other 5 I started to panic, ( thoughts of bobcats, cougars, hawks and raccoons danced in my head ) After an hour of walking all around in the snow I saw no chicken tracks outside of 5 ft from the coop. Well that was it, I was too casual with them and now the predators have eaten my girls, but all 5 of them in a matter of 40 minutes, didn't make sense . No blood, no feathers, no signs of struggle no discernible animal tracks except for the dogs and mine.
I resigned that they were gone, but the wise woodsman that he is, with all his experience, and in a matter of 15 minutes, discovered coyote tracks with one track in to the coop area and one track out. He then delivered to me the scenario that most likely ensued. He was sure the girls, if minus one, were hunkered down somewhere and very still with fear. So Tyler, my son and I, set out to find them. As soon as we began the search, Tyler found Leghorn. She was missing a few feathers and paralyzed with fear in a corner of the garage like structure next the the neighbors home. Then I suddenly saw Lucy Lynne slinking slowly around the woodshed headed back to the coop. She was shaken but unharmed and determined to get into the safety of the coop. We let her in and set out to look for the other 3. Starting with the wood shed, then under the coop, in the bushes and finally success they were crowded and cowering deep under the neighbor's porch, all 3 of them!
The predators are lurking, closer than I ever imagined. I'm relieved but now the girls are not going to be able to linger about as they have for the past 9 months. I'll have to build some sort of enclosed area or run for them to get out in and exercise or they will end up as food for the local critters. Yuk... geezz I need not be so attached to these stupid birds LOL And all this time I thought a boyfriend would be just too much trouble, what was I thinking. LOL.
Well off to class I go, and to all that are reading this I will post pictures of the girls in the snow sometime soon.
over and out
1st red flag, the girls were not in the yard. It's the middle of the afternoon, surely they weren't all in the coop. 2nd red flag, the coop only had 4 hens in the laying boxes. As I called out for the other 5 I started to panic, ( thoughts of bobcats, cougars, hawks and raccoons danced in my head ) After an hour of walking all around in the snow I saw no chicken tracks outside of 5 ft from the coop. Well that was it, I was too casual with them and now the predators have eaten my girls, but all 5 of them in a matter of 40 minutes, didn't make sense . No blood, no feathers, no signs of struggle no discernible animal tracks except for the dogs and mine.
I resigned that they were gone, but the wise woodsman that he is, with all his experience, and in a matter of 15 minutes, discovered coyote tracks with one track in to the coop area and one track out. He then delivered to me the scenario that most likely ensued. He was sure the girls, if minus one, were hunkered down somewhere and very still with fear. So Tyler, my son and I, set out to find them. As soon as we began the search, Tyler found Leghorn. She was missing a few feathers and paralyzed with fear in a corner of the garage like structure next the the neighbors home. Then I suddenly saw Lucy Lynne slinking slowly around the woodshed headed back to the coop. She was shaken but unharmed and determined to get into the safety of the coop. We let her in and set out to look for the other 3. Starting with the wood shed, then under the coop, in the bushes and finally success they were crowded and cowering deep under the neighbor's porch, all 3 of them!
The predators are lurking, closer than I ever imagined. I'm relieved but now the girls are not going to be able to linger about as they have for the past 9 months. I'll have to build some sort of enclosed area or run for them to get out in and exercise or they will end up as food for the local critters. Yuk... geezz I need not be so attached to these stupid birds LOL And all this time I thought a boyfriend would be just too much trouble, what was I thinking. LOL.
Well off to class I go, and to all that are reading this I will post pictures of the girls in the snow sometime soon.
over and out
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