THEMSELVES!!
I spend so much of my time worrying about predators, diseases, etc, but at the end of the day, it seems that my chickens are more in danger of killing themselves than anything else!
I have two dozen chickens total and all are penned in a run except for my three original ladies, they're free range.
Several months ago, I lost one of my original three, apparently inaccurately named Houdini (she was the smallest and always getting herself out of seemingly secure locations) to a bizarre accident, death by hanging from our hay baler. Not exactly a fun scene to see first thing when you get home.
So we are down to two free ranging ladies.
Then yesterday, I came home to only one free ranging chicken and Lucy was no where to be found. I searched all over our property, no luck. After off and on searching for several hours, I had just about given up and was close to tears when I noticed the girls in the run paying a strange amount of attention to the "rock wall" (not cemented in, but loose large rocks) that keeps them from going underneath their raised coop.
Exhibit A:
I pulled back a couple rocks to take a look and to my SHOCK I was face to face with Lucy!! She had gotten herself underneath the pen from the backside and was stuck nearly upside down inside of a tight roll of hardware cloth that sits right behind the rock wall and is secured to the ground to prevent critters getting under to dig.
After nearly an hour and a half of dismantling the wall and carefully removing the boards that secure the hardware cloth roll, while also not trying to smoosh Lucy, we FINALLY got her out. There was absolutely no way she could of gotten out on her own, I'm still at little at a loss on how she got in there. Needless to say, she was pretty glad to be out (it was in the upper 80s and super humid), guzzled some water then half ran to her coop, squawking the whole time and immediately laid an egg.
Silly chickens, I can only do so much to keep you safe, the rest is up to you guys.
ETA: The lucky-to-be-alive chicken in question...
I spend so much of my time worrying about predators, diseases, etc, but at the end of the day, it seems that my chickens are more in danger of killing themselves than anything else!
I have two dozen chickens total and all are penned in a run except for my three original ladies, they're free range.
Several months ago, I lost one of my original three, apparently inaccurately named Houdini (she was the smallest and always getting herself out of seemingly secure locations) to a bizarre accident, death by hanging from our hay baler. Not exactly a fun scene to see first thing when you get home.
So we are down to two free ranging ladies.
Then yesterday, I came home to only one free ranging chicken and Lucy was no where to be found. I searched all over our property, no luck. After off and on searching for several hours, I had just about given up and was close to tears when I noticed the girls in the run paying a strange amount of attention to the "rock wall" (not cemented in, but loose large rocks) that keeps them from going underneath their raised coop.
Exhibit A:
I pulled back a couple rocks to take a look and to my SHOCK I was face to face with Lucy!! She had gotten herself underneath the pen from the backside and was stuck nearly upside down inside of a tight roll of hardware cloth that sits right behind the rock wall and is secured to the ground to prevent critters getting under to dig.
After nearly an hour and a half of dismantling the wall and carefully removing the boards that secure the hardware cloth roll, while also not trying to smoosh Lucy, we FINALLY got her out. There was absolutely no way she could of gotten out on her own, I'm still at little at a loss on how she got in there. Needless to say, she was pretty glad to be out (it was in the upper 80s and super humid), guzzled some water then half ran to her coop, squawking the whole time and immediately laid an egg.
Silly chickens, I can only do so much to keep you safe, the rest is up to you guys.
ETA: The lucky-to-be-alive chicken in question...
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