Cluckingham Palace “Scrapbook”

[tviss711]

The unimaginable happened today. Two dogs first broke into our yard, then into our run this morning and completely devastated our entire flock. Baby Blue was still alive but died after a few minutes in my lap. We are absolutely heartbroken. Our youngest weren’t even a year old yet and we had gotten so blessed with our surprise rooster. His body was right next to his favorite hen, I’m sure he died defending her. We got video footage of the entire thing and I can’t even watch it. Animal control has started a case and the owners are our neighbors a few houses down, apparently it isn’t the first offense for these dogs escaping and killing neighbors birds and other pets. (Sounds like the 4th or 5th incident). The owners are mortified and trying to make it right but I am just devastated as nothing will bring my girls back. We hand raised all our birds, they were our pets and the eggs were just a nice perk. Two of our hens are no where to be found. We searched high and low. They were either completely consumed or managed to escape. I can only hope they are around somewhere and hopefully uninjured. Or maybe someone will find them and give them a good home. We haven’t fully decided yet whether we will continue with another flock. We are afraid those dogs will return if they ever escape again. After burying our flock we realized we have some fresh and fertile eggs left. We may try to incubate them and see what happens, but it is a long shot. Thank you all for your support and kindness along the way on this journey of chicken raising. We learned so much from all of you, but especially from our precious girls.

 

[Evadig]

The unimaginable happened today. Two dogs first broke into our yard, then into our run this morning and completely devastated our entire flock. Baby Blue was still alive but died after a few minutes in my lap. We are absolutely heartbroken. Our youngest weren’t even a year old yet and we had gotten so blessed with our surprise rooster. His body was right next to his favorite hen, I’m sure he died defending her. We got video footage of the entire thing and I can’t even watch it. Animal control has started a case and the owners are our neighbors a few houses down, apparently it isn’t the first offense for these dogs escaping and killing neighbors birds and other pets. (Sounds like the 4th or 5th incident). The owners are mortified and trying to make it right but I am just devastated as nothing will bring my girls back. We hand raised all our birds, they were our pets and the eggs were just a nice perk. Two of our hens are no where to be found. We searched high and low. They were either completely consumed or managed to escape. I can only hope they are around somewhere and hopefully uninjured. Or maybe someone will find them and give them a good home. We haven’t fully decided yet whether we will continue with another flock. We are afraid those dogs will return if they ever escape again. After burying our flock we realized we have some fresh and fertile eggs left. We may try to incubate them and see what happens, but it is a long shot. Thank you all for your support and kindness along the way on this journey of chicken raising. We learned so much from all of you, but especially from our precious girls.

I am so sorry!
I don’t know what else to say. I will pray for you.

 

[tviss711]

I am so sorry!
I don’t know what else to say. I will pray for you.

Dottie came home it was a miracle she didn’t have so much as a feather missing. She came clucking out of the bushes and hopped into the coop. Now we are looking for anyone selling a hen or two so she isn’t alone and doesn’t get stressed. I’m so thankful we are praying that Houlihan will show up next, she is the other one that is missing.

 

[tviss711]

Well, we are rebuilding over here at Cluckingham palace. With Dottie’s return we ended up taking in two older hens from someone who was wanting to rehome them so Dottie would not be alone. We have built a fence, and are adding solar power hot fencing around our chicken yard to deter any future dogs from trying to murder our flock.

The two new gals came with the names Elliot and Lolita, Elliot is friendly and approximately 11 years old, an olive egger of some kind but I would be very surprised if we ever see an egg from her. We are told Lolita lays light green eggs but haven’t seen any yet, it’s been about 3 weeks since we had them. Dottie took a while to recover from the trauma of losing her sisters but is back to laying. The three of them honestly get along so well, it makes me happy for Dottie. She is the calmest she’s ever been (she always acted kind of crazy before).

We did end up incubating the remaining eggs we had from our flock, which was only 8 eggs as they had just recovered from molting. Of those 8, 7 were fertile and are now doing well on lockdown, expecting chicks in just a couple of days. We are making a memorial piece for our flock, as we have a couple feathers from each of them that we collected and will frame soon. I’m looking forward to seeing their babies and I’m hoping we are able to tell who’s mom each chick is. Obviously hoping for more hens than roos but only time will tell. Our roo was awesome so we would like to keep one of the roosters if we get one. Just hopefully we won’t end up with 7!

This is Elliot, I’ve been calling her “Swayze” on account of her little mullet.

And here is Lolita. She reminds me of Fawkes from Harry Potter her eyes are a bright orange. Friendly but doesn’t like to approach humans and won’t eat from my hand. My project is to try and tame her but I don’t know how successful I will be. She is quite pretty and this picture doesn’t really do her justice.

Here they all are together, with our little crazy chicken Dottie in the front.

Hopefully, I will have chick pictures to share soon.

 

[Evadig]

Well, we are rebuilding over here at Cluckingham palace. With Dottie’s return we ended up taking in two older hens from someone who was wanting to rehome them so Dottie would not be alone. We have built a fence, and are adding solar power hot fencing around our chicken yard to deter any future dogs from trying to murder our flock.

The two new gals came with the names Elliot and Lolita, Elliot is friendly and approximately 11 years old, an olive egger of some kind but I would be very surprised if we ever see an egg from her. We are told Lolita lays light green eggs but haven’t seen any yet, it’s been about 3 weeks since we had them. Dottie took a while to recover from the trauma of losing her sisters but is back to laying. The three of them honestly get along so well, it makes me happy for Dottie. She is the calmest she’s ever been (she always acted kind of crazy before).

We did end up incubating the remaining eggs we had from our flock, which was only 8 eggs as they had just recovered from molting. Of those 8, 7 were fertile and are now doing well on lockdown, expecting chicks in just a couple of days. We are making a memorial piece for our flock, as we have a couple feathers from each of them that we collected and will frame soon. I’m looking forward to seeing their babies and I’m hoping we are able to tell who’s mom each chick is. Obviously hoping for more hens than roos but only time will tell. Our roo was awesome so we would like to keep one of the roosters if we get one. Just hopefully we won’t end up with 7!

This is Elliot, I’ve been calling her “Swayze” on account of her little mullet.
View attachment 4041760

And here is Lolita. She reminds me of Fawkes from Harry Potter her eyes are a bright orange. Friendly but doesn’t like to approach humans and won’t eat from my hand. My project is to try and tame her but I don’t know how successful I will be. She is quite pretty and this picture doesn’t really do her justice.
View attachment 4041762
Here they all are together, with our little crazy chicken Dottie in the front.
View attachment 4041765

Hopefully, I will have chick pictures to share soon.

They are pretty! I’m glad the eggs turned out to be fertile. Hope they all make it - and at least one turns out to be a hen!

 

[tviss711]

6 out of seven eggs hatched!
I have a grow along thread too as we watch them feather out!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/hopeful-hatch-grow-along.1651843/#post-28390621