came in from work and found my small hen (i think that was me you had read about javachick--she is little, but def, not bantam--i guess someone could work with a bird her size though to create smaller birds) had been let out of the BJ pen and put in with the olive eggers, a pen that has 5 roos in it (three waiting for butchering this weekend). her back looked rough so i know she was covered. i am just sick about it. we live in a small tourist attraction/artists' community and although my chickens are in the PRIVATE space where tourists shouldn't be, they still sometime find their way back there and take pictures of me cleaning out the coop, etc. (insert grimace here). anyway, i am guessing some kid went in like it was a petting zoo and let my girl out of the six ft tall black java pen. at some point someone put her back up but in the neighboring pen, with all the roos. i am just SICK. i had orders for four dozen eggs and she was my BEST layer. now to keep her separate with the BJ flock for three weeks will put us in the dead of winter and this likely means my season of BJ eggs is basically over.
ugh.
on the up side, candled my BJ eggs (day 14) and found 10/11 are developing and looking good. i will never have a flock of BJ hens this small again! i plan to add all the hens and one of the roos from this hatch, which will hopefully bring my total up to 7-10 hens and 2 roos.
