Oh, ohiochickens, I am grieving with you. I had my little three-week-old-today peeps out in the kennel coop that I'd fortified top to bottom and thought they were safe to be outside in the sunshine scratching grass. I was cleaning the kitchen, and when I went back out to check on them there was a grey hawk of some kind standing beside the coop. He didn't fly off until I got close enough to see that he'd killed and half eaten my little Partridge Rock, Jackie, through the fence. I found Hannah (BCM) and Suzie (SS) perched traumatized on top of a bucket, and Fidget (SS) trembling in a corner behind a rock. My sweet Becky, Muffin, and Heckle and Jeckle were gone without a trace.
The only feathers I found were two of Jackie's. A part of me is hoping maybe the chicks managed to get up high enough to get through the chain link fence part that I hadn't covered with chicken wire and are cowering somewhere under the barn...and that there are no snakes under there...and that they'll get to the food and water that I edged under a corner...that they'll come to me when I call so I can get them in. But I'm resigning myself to the worst.
My neighbor lost ten full-grown chickens, probably to this same hawk. She had them in a loosely fenced area and said something had snatched the chickens one by one through the fence. But that was happening at night, she thought, and she thought my chicks would be safe to be out there in the kennel-coop during the day as long as I brought them in at night.
It just breaks my heart. And now I'm worried sick about what to do with my remaining three babies. At least now there's enough room in the brooder.
UPDATE: We found Muffin, Heckle, and Jeckle and managed to get them inside. Becky may or may not be alive still. She was peeping from the other side of the fence, behind our barn and under our neighbor's hay shed, where we can't get to her. I saw her and called to her, and then she disappeared from sight and stopped peeping. It's dark. I'm hoping she found a place in the hay to curl up and go to sleep and that tomorrow maybe I can coax her out. Robert says he bets something got her, though. I'm prepared for that. At least I got back three that I thought were gone. My Muffin! But Becky is my absolute favorite. I hope she survives the night.
SECOND UPDATE: Becky survived the night! With all the cats and snakes and hawks around here, it's a miracle that a three-week-old chick managed to survive. Now, I may not survive after getting myself completely covered in poison ivy while trying to catch her. Finally it dawned on me to bring the other chicks out and put them in the coop (with DH guarding them against that darn hawk). Sure enough, their peeping brought Becky right out from under the barn and I was finally able to nab her. So I lost one, not five. What a relief, but I am still sad about my little Jackie.
