Chicken Massacre at Silver Run

This is all I have left of my flock.

A young Jersey Giant on the left

(not even 100% it's a Jersesy Giant)

Vader the Black Brahma roo on the perch and 

Thelma the barred Rock also on the perch

(they were camera shy)

You can see the feathers in the coop.

That's what's left of the others.

Wednesday evening, 

Big E and I were there to fill the feeders and check on everyone.

I had lost 2 hens already-

one I assumed from old age and one I assumed from the heat

(now I"m not so sure).

I noticed Nutsy my Buff Orpington was missing.

I searched the fields and barn and eventually noticed a small

trail of feathers going off into the neighbors field.

And then there were 7. 

On Saturday, 

Big E and I were at the homestead.

I noticed one of the screens from the coop window had been knocked out.

I blamed it on stupid chickens.

Inside the coop, there was a piece of wood that was screwed in 

around the opening into the run to prevent the bedding from falling through the hole

that had been pulled out.

While I thought it odd, 

I still blamed the chickens as the roo is quite heavy and sometimes sits on the wood piece.

Royal Farms- World Famous Chicken

 In a moment of foreshadowing, 

I mentioned how I'd been pretty pissed if something happened to my favorite hen

named Royal Farms.

She's not just my favorite, she's everyone's favorite.

She is the first to come running over when she sees me, 

and she is always looking to be held or petted.

My brother commented that his friends' kids all love her because she's so nice. 

The next morning- Sunday-

I got a text from my mom letting me know I needed to take care of the chickens.

Big E and I were puzzled how they could be out of food already 

as the new feeders last about a week once filled.

So we went over and found the feeders nearly empty with a large pile

of food on the ground.

I had no clue how the chickens managed to get that much food out of the feeder

since they were designed to prevent food waste.

We didn't count chickens since they were out in the pasture,

and we were on our way to an Eagle Scout ceremony.

A little bit later, I received a call from my mom.

She told me how that morning, 

she found a dead chicken in the coop, bloodied.

While she was getting ready to take care of that chicken, 

she found another ripped to pieces out in the chicken yard.

Two other hens were just missing.

 Lucille, who was the lone survivor of a massacre at my friend's farm, was gone.

 So was the "scalped" chicken I had nursed back from certain death.

And so was Royal Farms.

Now it's time for revenge.

We're pretty certain that the culprit is a raccoon.

It explains why there was a pile of food and why the food disappeared so quickly, 

it explains why the chickens were killed and not carried off,

and it explains what has been digging up a bee's nest in the barn

(we were already sure there was a raccoon going down to the barn already since it was in the cat's water bowl and into the cat food and generally just making a mess of things).

 It's no secret I'm an animal lover.

I love all animals, 

even raccoons.

Me as a kid feeding a wild raccoon

But while the hawk and fox kill my chickens, 

they also only kill what they're going to eat

and they don't leave them.

The raccoon kills as many as it can

and leaves the bodies there.

It's a mass murderer.

A chicken serial killer.

And he's going down.

If the 10 year old has anything to say about it, 

he and his grandfather will be staking out the chicken coop

waiting to shoot the bandit.

While I don't see that happening, 

something is going to be done.

Then There Were Six

 Sadly, we had another chicken fatality last week.  Poor Pansy the blue laced Barnevelder succumbed to the fox.  There was some confusion as to who exactly became fox food.  I was concerned it was one of the two left that I had raised this spring.  Luckily, those two survived (which is a minor miracle as those two tend to be the most adventurous of the bunch).
While I'm disappointed I lost Pansy, she was not very friendly and was quite difficult to catch. Not to mention her skittish nature, which is how she earned her name (because she was a pansy not because of anything related to the flower). 
Just means there will be one more chick in the brooder in 2016.

And in other news, I'm slightly closer to being able to share The Big News.  I'm hoping to be able to share with everyone all the new developments by the end of the week- if things go the way I want them to.  I have no patience and keeping this news to myself is killing me!

More Losses

It has been a rough couple of months for chickens and guineas.  First, Little Albert the Guinea went missing.  Because we didn't find any evidence of an attack, we thought perhaps he had just wandered to one of the neighbors' houses.  So I looked all over our pastures playing guinea hen calls on my phone (no. really. I did that.) thinking it would entice him to come home.  Unfortunately, the next day, I found the tell tale pile of feathers.  Something had eaten Albert.

Next I found my silkie hen dead in the chicken run.  There were no signs of what might have been the problem.  The chickens were all healthy- I had just checked them all the night before.  Then came Zombie.  I found her in the coop.  No signs or symptoms of what could have happened.

Since then, everyone has been okay.  I have been keeping an eye on them to note any change in appearance or sign of illness.  So far so good.  For now, I won't be adding anyone to the flock.  I've found that raising chicks is my preferred way to add new hens.  The two I raised this past spring are comfortable around me and come when called as opposed to the others who really don't care about me unless I have food.  But it's a pain to care for them and a pain to wait all summer for them to grow to egg laying age.  So, I might opt to hit the poultry swap to pick up some chicks.

I also want to try guineas again.  Little Albert was pretty cool and I'm really hoping that guineas will solve my squash bug problem.  Like the chickens, I plan to add them in the spring.  I'm hoping to get the hubby to build a small coop for the guineas to put in the garden.  We'll see what happens with that.

3 Little Indians

 Sunday night, Henny Penny passed away.

At first she seemed to be improving,but Sunday she was quiet and lethargic.

I knew it was going to be the end.

 I buried her down in the pasture in the "Pet Cemetery"

(really, there's a horse, 3 dogs, 2 cats, 2 rabbits and a turtle there)

She was the coolest chicken I've ever met

and I doubt I'll meet another one as cool as she.

I'm now down to three chickens:

1 Speckled Sussex, 1 Jersey Giant and Zombie who is a Brown Leghorn I think.

Zombie is the only one old enough to lay eggs and she isn't.

I've been checking them daily for signs of illness and so far so good.  

Though part of me right now wonders if it's all worth it. 

I now have 5 chickens to replace and I'm guessing the cost could

be $50+.

I'm supposed to be heading to the Maryland Poultry Swap in a week and a half,

but my heart just isn't in it.

The Ongoing Saga of Henny Penny

I seriously feel like I'm in a chicken soap opera.

It's been a rough 24 hours with the chickens.

I noticed something wrong with one of the Jersey Giants
yesterday evening but because of a scouting event I was required to attend,
there wasn't anything I could do.
At 10pm when I got home,
I found the sick pullet near the end
and she died in my arms in the rain by the light of my head lamp.
It was at that moment that I discovered Henny Penny also showing signs of illness.
This meant a sleepless night for me
as I researched the possible causes (respiratory infection)
can treatment.
In the morning, Penny was looking worse.
I wasn't sure she'd even make it long enough for me to treat her.
So I ran out to TSC to get what I needed
and set up the "chicken hospital" in my parents' basement.

When I got to the house at lunch,
she was thankfully alive.
I took her inside and began administering the drugs.
Ever give a chicken a shot?
You need at least 2 more hands.
Penny promptly bit me once I finished with the injection.
Then I had to pry her beak open to give her some Nutri-Boost.
The Nutri-Boost is supposed to help with dehydration, boost the immune system and help the antiboptic work more effectively.
I think I wore more of the foul smelling and looking stuff than I managed to get into her mouth.
When I was through and put her back in her cage,
she immediately started eating.

I'm hoping that's a positive sign.
I get to give her 2 more injections today.
I'm hoping to see signs of improvement this evening.

R.I.P. Chickens

My original 6 chickens 3 years ago

 As if life were stressful enough for me these days,

I lost the last two hens from my original 6 chicks.

And I lost them during my son's family birthday party.

It was definitely a downer.

Seems a fox got my Buff Orpington Bertha down by the barn.

The other 4 older hens scattered toward the house.

Two went to the coop,

Martha Stewart, my Araucana, ran toward the house.

The fox got her next to our deck.

So I'm down 2 layers

until the other pullets get older

(not till August/September time frame)

and I won't have any more green eggs.

Bertha in the Garden

Bertha looking for a treat

Martha Stewart is the chicken on the right

 Now the remaining chickens are locked up.

Penny is still at my house, 

though I'm growing tired of having her there 

in such tight quarters.

I guess there will be more chickens

since we put all that money and time into making the coop bigger.

But honestly, with everything going on, I don't know if I have the heart to bother with more.

So Long, Friend

Okay, so friend might be pushing it.

She was just a chicken.

 But she was my favorite one or one of my favorites,

and yesterday she met an untimely end.

My brother found a large pile of white and black feathers in the bottom pasture.

So, off we went in search of chickens.

Two were hiding in the branches of a large spruce tree,

2 were missing and one was presumed dead.

We confirmed that Squatch was dead when we found her body in the neighbor's field

relatively untouched.

There was no sign of Bertha or Martha Stewart who are the only remaining hens from my original 6.

We looked all over-

me clucking like a chicken-

but found no sign not even feathers.

I left for my meeting, my son crying, me with a lump in my throat 

(don't judge I raised them from little chicks)

While I was at dinner I got a call.

My brother found the 2 missing hens and had returned them to their coop.

So R.I.P. Squatch

you're antics will be missed

(theory is that a dog got her as a fox is unlikely to leave a perfectly good dead chicken)

Chicken Hawks

Okay, so this isn't really what a chicken hawk is.

And while this might be your idea of a chicken hawk based on your childhood cartoons, 

this isn't really one either.

Chicken hawk is a term used for 3 different hawks:

Cooper's Hawk

Short Shinned Hawk

and a 

Red Tailed Hawk.

Of the 3, only the Red Tailed hawk actually makes a meal out of a free range chicken.

A few weeks ago, 

I lost one of my Buff Orpingtons.

Nothing was left of her except a pile of pumpkin colored feathers.

There was speculation over what might have taken the bird for its dinner.  

A fox was the frontrunner as a suspect as I had heard them barking in the night, but 

after a close encounter the dogs had with a skunk, I thought perhaps that was the culprit.

Then, one day I'm watching the birds at our bird feeder in the back yard.

I notice the chickens running at break neck speed towards a cedar tree in our fence line.

At first I thought nothing of it.

Those chickens run everywhere.

Then I see a large brown bird swoop down towards the hens as they're running.

It was the local red tailed hawk. 

I ran out the back door, waving my arms shrieking

"Don't you eat my chickens!"

(Thank GOD there was no one there with a camera)

The hawk flew off and I counted the hens.

One was missing.

I looked over towards the coop to see the missing chicken stepping out clucking as if to say

"Where the heck did everyone go?"

I ran over (hearing the shrieks of the hawk still nearby) and pushed her back into the coop.

I turned to go get the other chickens only to see them running at high speed back to the coop

screaming, "We're coming! We're Coming!"

Ok, maybe they weren't screaming, but if they were capable of speech, that's what they would have said.

Now the girls are spending a little more time in lock down.

Oh, they get out, just not on any kind of set or regular schedule-

the same thing the police tell you if you think someone is watching you.

They aren't happy about it.

Especially Bertha here.

I expect to find her one morning dragging a tin cup across the wire.

Next Generation

Meet Zombie (on the left) and Nugget (on the right)

the new additions to the flock.

They are Golden laced Wyandottes

and will look like this when grown

And yes, 

they were named by a 6 year old boy.

RIP Scrawny Chicken

Matilda the buff in the back left

About two weeks ago, 

my mother asked if I had counted the chickens.

Immediately, I knew I'd be missing someone.

Turns out there was a pile of orange feathers near the barn

and I was missing a buff orpington.

While sad that I lost a chicken,

it at least was the scrawny one named Matilda

and not Bertha who has personality in droves.