Today, for the first time in longer than I can remember, I am chickenless. I started the spring with 25 adults, 11 babies from 3 hatchings, and had more broodies besides. We were gone for about 6 weeks this summer - had someone living at our place, my mom came daily to check on the chickens and we have a dog. About 3 weeks into our trip, something came in the middle of the day when everyone was gone and took about half my flock. (I'm guessing coyotes - we had the exact same thing happen 4 years ago when we didn't have a dog) So, my mom - in an effort to keep them safe - locked them in the coops with attached runs. There was plenty of room for each flock in their respective enclosures. Several days later, she came to find more dead chickens in one of the runs. We figured maybe mink, by the pictures she sent, and what our mink kill looked like last winter. So, she closed the pop door between the coop and run. Next day there were more dead birds in my locked, closed coop. I had 5 chickens left when I came home. A rooster, a 4 month old cockerel, and three two-year old hens. We decided to let them free range. One day, DH found a dead hen in the driveway. Looked like a hawk kill. A few weeks later, rooster and another hen disappeared without a trace. The remaining hen and cockerel were put in the coop/run and kept locked up. Two weeks ago, I found the hen dead in the coop - no sign of injury whatsoever. Today, we butchered our remaining bird. The carcass is in my pressure cooker, being turned into bone broth. Breast, legs and thighs are aging in the fridge before I freeze them.
I'll have to say, I have very mixed feelings about this. While it will be nice not to have chicken chores in the cold of winter, I will miss them. I miss hearing a rooster's crow, or driving in the driveway seeing them scratching, pecking and chasing bugs. They loved hanging out in the old apple orchard, tearing apart a decaying log and digging under leaves to find buried treasures.
I will start over in the spring, and I have two sources for good, farm fresh eggs until I get layers again. It is kind of strange, though, to walk down to the coops and not see and hear them out and about. I plan on cleaning out my coops entirely and looking for weak spots where whatever got in and killed them in the coop. Hoping for an early, warm spring to get all that done so I can get chicks ASAP in the spring.
I'll have to say, I have very mixed feelings about this. While it will be nice not to have chicken chores in the cold of winter, I will miss them. I miss hearing a rooster's crow, or driving in the driveway seeing them scratching, pecking and chasing bugs. They loved hanging out in the old apple orchard, tearing apart a decaying log and digging under leaves to find buried treasures.
I will start over in the spring, and I have two sources for good, farm fresh eggs until I get layers again. It is kind of strange, though, to walk down to the coops and not see and hear them out and about. I plan on cleaning out my coops entirely and looking for weak spots where whatever got in and killed them in the coop. Hoping for an early, warm spring to get all that done so I can get chicks ASAP in the spring.
I'm so sorry! What a miserable series of awful events! This isn't how we want to have a new flock, ever. Mary
