Very sad - we were on a trip to NYC and a cruise to Canada last week and my 71-year-old mom was housesitting. It was too much for her to shoo the ducks in and out of the chicken coop each day, so we let the ducks free range while she was housesitting.
Well, two days into our trip, she called and said that one duck was missing. The next day, a henpecked chicken that we were letting free range disappeared as well. She started putting the remaining duck up at night, since obviously something was attacking our flock.
Sure enough, upon our return, we found remnants of our white pekin duck spread on a path from our barn down to the fence line. It seems that the poor thing struggled, but couldn't win a fight with a coyote. Still haven't found any trace of the chicken.
So sad...we really liked that duck. She was quite a character, standing under the running hose and taking a "shower" and enjoying herself doing silly things like that.
We are going to the Ky Chickenstock this weekend and we're going to buy a drake so that she'll have a partner again. But man...I always talk about how we all need to share the same space/land with coyotes, etc, since we're infringing on their turf. But I suddenly have a great urge to go coyote hunting...
Well, two days into our trip, she called and said that one duck was missing. The next day, a henpecked chicken that we were letting free range disappeared as well. She started putting the remaining duck up at night, since obviously something was attacking our flock.
Sure enough, upon our return, we found remnants of our white pekin duck spread on a path from our barn down to the fence line. It seems that the poor thing struggled, but couldn't win a fight with a coyote. Still haven't found any trace of the chicken.
So sad...we really liked that duck. She was quite a character, standing under the running hose and taking a "shower" and enjoying herself doing silly things like that.
We are going to the Ky Chickenstock this weekend and we're going to buy a drake so that she'll have a partner again. But man...I always talk about how we all need to share the same space/land with coyotes, etc, since we're infringing on their turf. But I suddenly have a great urge to go coyote hunting...
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