I've been meaning to post for weeks now with updates on the garden and our efforts to keep the deer, caterpillars, and rabbits from eating everything before we do, but time has been flying by again lately. And now the garden doesn't seem as important, because our flock of chickens has taken some tragic hits lately.
One evening about two weeks ago Mike headed out to count the chickens and close up the coop, as we do every night. But one rooster was missing. It was fully dark outside and we were in the middle of a thunderstorm, but we both grabbed flashlights and rain jackets and searched everywhere we could think of. No sign of him. I remembered hearing some commotion from the yard earlier in the day, and we've had hawks in the area, so we concluded that a hawk had probably swooped down and grabbed him. He was the friendlier of the two roosters and was looking like he would turn out to be the dominant one, so we are very sad to have lost him. But at least we had a "spare" rooster, so the remaining one could now reign in peace.
Today I was working in my office when I heard another chicken-related commotion. Now much more concerned about the sounds of alarm, I jumped up and saw a coyote standing in the middle of the yard, with chickens fleeing for their lives in every direction. Mike and I raced outside just in time to hear a chicken scream from the woods. (Who knew they could scream? It was awful.) But by the time we got out there, the coyote and all the birds were gone or hiding. We commenced an hour-long search through the woods to find the survivors. The poor hen who screamed is alive, but her leg or foot is hurt. We also recovered four traumatized but unharmed hens. Mike found a pile of brown feathers, which is a sad sign that one of our fat, friendly Buff Orpingtons met her end. And as for our remaining rooster, we've seen no sign of him. He may be lost in the woods, or he may have been eaten too.
We don't know if the hurt hen will recover or not. Per the instructions of Chicken Health For Dummies, which I'm very glad I have on hand, we've made a little chicken hospital out of her childhood nursery, the red bin. She was able to walk a little, so we're optimistic that nothing is broken (which would probably mean euthanization). I think all we can really do is keep her comfortable and wait to see if she heals.
We had worried about the stray dogs that roam through our property sometimes, but I never thought coyotes would be a daytime problem. Even a really defensive, mean rooster isn't a match for coyotes; the best you can hope for is that he alerts the hens to danger in time for them to hide. Maybe our two roosters were martyrs, sacrificing themselves so most of the ladies could get away. But we're pretty sad that our flock of 8 cute little chicks is now down to 5.
Update 7/9/13: The rooster returned! When Mike went out to check on the chickens again, hours after my first post, he was back among the hens where he belongs. We don't know where he was hiding or whether he was chasing the coyote away (ha), but he seems fine and we are very glad to have him back. I was never happier to hear him give his strangled-sounding adolescent crow than this morning.
