Last night (Tuesday) my wife did what she always does, and she went out to put the chickens to sleep (Close up the coop). She came back inside after about 10 minutes and told me to come outside. WE WERE SHORT A CHICKEN. Whats more, is that the missing chicken was her favorite chicken, a solid dark grey Silkie. We both looked all around the pen to see where she may have roosted, because she was not in the coop, but she was nowhere to be found.
We came inside to talk to our 14 year old son, and all of a sudden he had a bad look on his face. "Dad this morning, right before I walked to school i saw a large hawk sitting on the edge of the run." Our run is not enclosed on the top, so we assumed the worst. Our darling little, super tame chicken had gotten eaten by what we assumed was a Osprey. We were all sad and went to bed.
I was off today and had to run some errands, when i got home i realised i had not let the chickens OUT of the coop, so i went to do that. Then i heard the little cluck, cluck. It was Gandy! Apparently she had jumped on the fence, and fell over the side. Now on that side is a drainage area, where the raccoons come in to the pen. She slept in the danger zone all night! I used a ladder and got her.
This evening we decided that we would clip their wings, to keep them from flying over the fence, so we closed the pen so we can pick them up, clip their wings, and place them in the coop. GANDY WAS GONE AGAIN!!! But we found her hunkered down in the corner. Remember she is really dark grey so we couldnt see her. I cussed that chicken out before we found her (I hope she diddnt hear me). We clipped her wings, and gave her a hair cut... You know Silkies have that poofy hair.
All in all, she had a grand adventure and our little chicken is back with her fellow chickens.
Now its time to cover the coop. We thought we would share our adventure of sadness, and then happiness.
We came inside to talk to our 14 year old son, and all of a sudden he had a bad look on his face. "Dad this morning, right before I walked to school i saw a large hawk sitting on the edge of the run." Our run is not enclosed on the top, so we assumed the worst. Our darling little, super tame chicken had gotten eaten by what we assumed was a Osprey. We were all sad and went to bed.
I was off today and had to run some errands, when i got home i realised i had not let the chickens OUT of the coop, so i went to do that. Then i heard the little cluck, cluck. It was Gandy! Apparently she had jumped on the fence, and fell over the side. Now on that side is a drainage area, where the raccoons come in to the pen. She slept in the danger zone all night! I used a ladder and got her.
This evening we decided that we would clip their wings, to keep them from flying over the fence, so we closed the pen so we can pick them up, clip their wings, and place them in the coop. GANDY WAS GONE AGAIN!!! But we found her hunkered down in the corner. Remember she is really dark grey so we couldnt see her. I cussed that chicken out before we found her (I hope she diddnt hear me). We clipped her wings, and gave her a hair cut... You know Silkies have that poofy hair.
All in all, she had a grand adventure and our little chicken is back with her fellow chickens.
Now its time to cover the coop. We thought we would share our adventure of sadness, and then happiness.
