My heart is absolutely broken. Even though I knew it was a matter of time before it happened, something got our Ricky today.
My grandson came running to me after he found piles of feathers behind our parrot house. Now alot makes sense. None of my other chickens are acting "normal". They're all hiding in their coops or under their coops. None of them will come out into their runs, even when I offered them treats. They must have witnessed the carnage.
Ricky, for those of you who don't know, was a rooster that was dumped on our property in February. We had just moved from NY and being city folk, didn't know the first thing about how to take care of a chicken. Someone I know casually suggested I come to BYC to ask questions, and I did.
Ricky initiated my family into chicken ownership. But he was a free spirit, refusing to be cooped, he slept in the rafters of our barn. Every morning he crowed his little heart out to let us know that he was awake and expecting us to be awake too. I can't tell you how many mornings hubby and I laid and bed giggling saying, "I can't believe we have a chicken!"
Anyway, I went to investigate where my grandson said there were feathers and my heart sunk. There were several piles of them. My Ricky put up a good fight. He was definitely taken by a ground animal and it looks like it dragged him into the woods. I followed the feathers as far as I could but then thorn bushes wouldn't let me go any farther. Tears were streaming down my face when I realized that he was really gone.
My poor 8 year old grandson is in lying on his bed crying his eyes out. Ricky was his rooster. He claimed him the day we found him roaming our property. We've been here almost 9 months with no predator problems and lately the predators have come out of the woodwork. Now maybe my husband will listen to me that the coops and runs NEED to be like Fort Knox for the safety of the chickens and ducks.
Good-bye my dear sweet Ricky. You were much loved and will be much missed by all here.
Laurie
My grandson came running to me after he found piles of feathers behind our parrot house. Now alot makes sense. None of my other chickens are acting "normal". They're all hiding in their coops or under their coops. None of them will come out into their runs, even when I offered them treats. They must have witnessed the carnage.
Ricky, for those of you who don't know, was a rooster that was dumped on our property in February. We had just moved from NY and being city folk, didn't know the first thing about how to take care of a chicken. Someone I know casually suggested I come to BYC to ask questions, and I did.
Ricky initiated my family into chicken ownership. But he was a free spirit, refusing to be cooped, he slept in the rafters of our barn. Every morning he crowed his little heart out to let us know that he was awake and expecting us to be awake too. I can't tell you how many mornings hubby and I laid and bed giggling saying, "I can't believe we have a chicken!"
Anyway, I went to investigate where my grandson said there were feathers and my heart sunk. There were several piles of them. My Ricky put up a good fight. He was definitely taken by a ground animal and it looks like it dragged him into the woods. I followed the feathers as far as I could but then thorn bushes wouldn't let me go any farther. Tears were streaming down my face when I realized that he was really gone.
My poor 8 year old grandson is in lying on his bed crying his eyes out. Ricky was his rooster. He claimed him the day we found him roaming our property. We've been here almost 9 months with no predator problems and lately the predators have come out of the woodwork. Now maybe my husband will listen to me that the coops and runs NEED to be like Fort Knox for the safety of the chickens and ducks.
Good-bye my dear sweet Ricky. You were much loved and will be much missed by all here.
Laurie
