You do NOT want to go to the chicken yard and see feathers all over the ground:
Remember how I told you about those pullets Mom bought? You can go here to read about it. They were in the bad habit of roosting in the trees in the middle of the chicken yard at night, too high for me and Mom to get them down. So Mom would let them stay there and keep the electric fence on at night to keep them safe.
Well, Mom and I were home alone at night and we heard this strange screaming sound from outside. Mom yelled, "FOX!". Foxes sound like a lady screaming. We ran outside to check on the chickens. We looked around and didn't see anything, so Mom checked to make sure the hen house was locked up tight. But to do that she had to turn off the electric fence. AND SHE FORGOT TO TURN IT BACK ON!
Well, the next morning there were feathers all over the ground, and a dead chicken was stuck in the fence.
We don't think it was the fox we heard, but a raccoon. Worst of all, five chickens were missing, and one was injured. One of the missing chickens came back, but the injured chicken died. So now we have 15 pullets left out of the 20.
Mom said she feels like the Job of chickens--you know, that guy in the Bible that had all that bad stuff happen to him. And it's not over. She still has a pullet that won't go in the hen house at night. So we put it in with the goats. The pullet will keep the bug population down in the goat pen, plus the goats will help keep it safe. We'll see!
You guys are sounding like us. We had a stray cat kill 5 of our chickens. It was awful. I also forget to put the electric fence on to our horses sometimes. It is easy to do. I feel for your loss.
ReplyDelete