- Apr 29, 2011
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I had a horrific weekend. I have been lurking on this list for awhile...sorry I havent posted until today. Anyway, we HAD 8 chicks, various breeds..favorites were the salmon favorelles, buff orpington, jersey giant. They were all about 6-8 weeks old (I think, we got them as babies from a feed store about 5-6 weeks ago.) We had been allowing them free-range during the day and in a temporary rabbit hutch overnight. Have been discussing various options for a more permanent coop w/my hubby. In any case, Saturday morning I'm eating breakfast and find a couple of the chicks walking around in the yard. Know they were locked up overnight. So, went out to the hutch and find it's open, with one pile of black feathers what's left of the jersey giant. 3 wings from the salmon favorelles....2 right by the hutch and another one maybe 20 feet away, in the middle of the yard. Also found 2 legs near the coop, a gizzard, and some intestines. Nothing else. We live in the Chicago suburbs and have a fenced yard....fence is 4 feet high split rail with wire mesh pulled even with the posts so 4.5 feet high total. (We did that to discourage the dogs from jumping the top rail- it's harder for them to judge when the mesh is high like that.) *sigh.* These were our pet birds. All of them had names. I was very attached to them. One of the living ones (she's a Phoenix) did not have a scratch on her. The other one had a big giant wound on her breast. Luckily I know some bird specialists in the area and she pulled through with surgery and sutures, so far she is healing ok. My lone 2 survivors are back in the Rubbermaid tubs in the basement for now as I need to keep Cinnamon indoors until she is all healed up. I feel horribly guilty and I fully take the blame that this happened. Really...it could have been almost any kind of animal that did this although I feel that a raccoon is more likely. Since we have had the fence up I have never found a coyote in the yard but I cannot completely rule it out either I dont think. My poor girls. My 4-year-old son has since named the Phoenix "Speedy" because she got away. We thought about re-naming Cinnamon as 'Harriet" Potter because she basically got away from Lord Voldemort with a scar. Some sort of magic was involved. Anyway, this weeks project is starting to build a decent coop for them. We will likely be using padlocks with keys nearby to secure the doors. Thanks for listening.
Kris
Kris