We got spoiled last Fall and Winter - our 6 hens freeranged and had no troubles at all.
Then on 4/3 we lost two at once - broad daylight, we were dropping my dad at the airport.
Last week we lost one of our remaining 4 - again, seemed to be a daylight snatch.
Two days ago one of the remaining 3 was snatched out of our (admittedly not very secure) coop.
We put the other two into a "tractor" (one of those 6-panel play-yards with chicken-wire wired down over the top and a waterer and some branches to roost on). They were on top of cut-down tall-grass and this was supposed to last a couple of days until we had the new, secure coop ready.
(Actually my husband came home early to do it while I was at gymnastics with the girls - he made an 8ftx8ft door, ran out of juice for his cordless drill, got fed up searching for the plug-in drill [we moved last Fall and there is still too much in boxes]. *I* thought the new coop would have been secured last night... I am a little bitter about this. All we are doing is poultry-netting over an open 2-sided horse-stall...)
Well, we lost the last two last night. Including our Buff Orpington, Goldie, who goes broody often and whom I was hoping to have nurture the chicks we have arriving in a few weeks. We'd had her for over 3 years... Poor Goldie happily adopted our 6-wk-old indoor-brooded Ameracauna chicks 2 years ago when we introduced them to the coop.
I posted on craigslist to see if anyone has old broodies that aren't laying well and would be up for re-homing them with us to brood our new chicks.
Sigh.
We'll finish off that coop, but now there's no urgency.
We're also getting a dog (before we get the chicks) and I'm getting some Electronet (just read Harvey Ussery's book).
Kerridwen
now *5 kids* and *on a farm*
(but is it really a farm when all we have are 2 guinea pigs and a cat?)
Then on 4/3 we lost two at once - broad daylight, we were dropping my dad at the airport.
Last week we lost one of our remaining 4 - again, seemed to be a daylight snatch.
Two days ago one of the remaining 3 was snatched out of our (admittedly not very secure) coop.
We put the other two into a "tractor" (one of those 6-panel play-yards with chicken-wire wired down over the top and a waterer and some branches to roost on). They were on top of cut-down tall-grass and this was supposed to last a couple of days until we had the new, secure coop ready.
(Actually my husband came home early to do it while I was at gymnastics with the girls - he made an 8ftx8ft door, ran out of juice for his cordless drill, got fed up searching for the plug-in drill [we moved last Fall and there is still too much in boxes]. *I* thought the new coop would have been secured last night... I am a little bitter about this. All we are doing is poultry-netting over an open 2-sided horse-stall...)
Well, we lost the last two last night. Including our Buff Orpington, Goldie, who goes broody often and whom I was hoping to have nurture the chicks we have arriving in a few weeks. We'd had her for over 3 years... Poor Goldie happily adopted our 6-wk-old indoor-brooded Ameracauna chicks 2 years ago when we introduced them to the coop.
I posted on craigslist to see if anyone has old broodies that aren't laying well and would be up for re-homing them with us to brood our new chicks.
Sigh.
We'll finish off that coop, but now there's no urgency.
We're also getting a dog (before we get the chicks) and I'm getting some Electronet (just read Harvey Ussery's book).
Kerridwen
now *5 kids* and *on a farm*
(but is it really a farm when all we have are 2 guinea pigs and a cat?)
