Grieving after losing my 8 to a fox

[Jcho131]

I am so sorry for your loss. I can only imagine how devastated you must feel.

I lost one of my favorite hens last year to an oppossum when my daughter accidentally left one coop doors open and I didn't check it before bed like I normally do. I beat myself up for a days over it...I felt incredibly guilty because I could see in retrospect how it could have been prevented. However, I eventually came to see it as a learning experience and I made some changes to the coop and run design so that such an accident couldn't happen again.

I want to encourage you to begin again. I bet your eight hens had a far better life with you than they would have had otherwise and that you will be able to do the same for a new group of girls.

Thank you so much. This is what Im hoping to replace my sadness with, the thought that they had a great life with us even if too short. It sort of feels too soon to start again, and start calling them our "old chickens" but the new chicks are with us now. They are making us move on forward.

 

[Jcho131]

My heart goes out to you and your family. I am terribly sorry for your loss, you never truly realize the impact these tiny raptors have on you until its too late.
Please know you are not at fault. We lost a girl to heat stroke and I beat myself up for weeks. I was so heart broken I didnt feel fit enough to care for my flock, it caused depression deeper than I realized.
As chicken tenders we tend to take on the guilt when mother nature does its thing.
Please, learn from the experience, find peace away from the what ifs, and open your heart and home back up for a new flock.
The world needs more lovers in it.

Totally. I had no idea they were such huge part of our daily lives and that they would leave a gaping hole now that they're gone. The what-if thoughts are endless and the feeling of letting them down so badly is really depressing us all, I so wish we might have been woken by the noise in the night that we could have saved a few... The new chicks were my attempt to show that we're not beaten, and as you say to open our hearts again.

 

[BoundlessLove]

Welcome to BYC!
I’m sorry about your losses.

 

[chrissynemetz]

Welcome to BYC! Many of us understand what you're going through firsthand.