Sunday, January 3, 2010

Christmas Chicken News...

So shortly after we lost Gray and Brownie...then Muffin, our delaware rooster became ill too.  He fell and then just laid there.  I brought him in and forced antibiotics down his throat and put him behind the woodburner.  He lasted longer than the others, but then he too went to the eternal hen house. 

Christmas eve into Christmas day sometime, we had more tragedy strike the hen house.  A opposum (we think) got in and killed four of the hens.  We found the bodies of 2 of them (without their heads, so that's why we think it's a opossum-that's their M.O.)

Then two days after, when man was going out to his shop he heard a terrible squack....the dogs and I ran out.  The dogs chased off whatever it was but not before it had taken a bite out of the back of one of the Wyandottes neck.  I was sure she was a goner...but here it is about 10 days later and she is still doing ok.  She was mothered by one of the dominiques and a comet.  So we are down to 40 hens, 1 rooster, and 9 chicks....Now we have a round number....The man says that God was "right-sizing" the flock.

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