Friday, August 20, 2010

Where's the Sign?

There must be a huge HUGE sign out for the predators to come to my barn for chicken dinner. I've lost a LOT of hens and a few roos over the last few weeks and I've tended to 4 big coons and 2 possums and I'm STILL losing my hens. Only I'm losing some of my pullets I've hatched out too! The black cochin roo that I was hoping would be my back up was gotten.

I've also lost one of my Brahma pullets that I hatched (leaving me 3). The Brahma pullets and a golden + blue hen who was Orpington x Americauna (25x25%) and x Cochin (50%) have been very friendly and out going girls while in the trailer growing up. They had still been quite friendly and happy to follow me around since they moved out with the adult chickens. The golden blue hen was dead yesterday. That really upset me as she was the most friendly of all and seemed to enjoy being pet, hand fed some treats and even be picked up and carried around. She was GORGEOUS! She was gold with some blue wing and tail feathers, some black ticking around her neck feathers and darker red for the skin around her eyes and comb. She also had gold leg feathers due to her Cochin sire. She was the only one I know that was from my blue roo I lost last winter. Her mother was taken in the last month too. What a disappointment as I'd like to have had more of her even if she was mixed breed. That was a dispostion to have and she'd have done just fine providing me table eggs. I'll miss her sitting on my foot looking up at me expecting me to have something to feed her!

I have 2 live traps going and I've dispatched the varmits I caught. I JUST bought chicken wire to put over the top of the pen. I'm trying to get the pen straightened back up so I can start covering it. We had the tree in the pen struck by lightening a week ago and I've got most of that half of the tree cut off with the remaining piece at the tree to take down. I don't have help so this isn't going to fast or well.

Then to top it all off, I came in for a couple hours so I could rest and clean the goat pen here in the house with Lady Bug 'n twins. I just went back out to feed and get the goats in order to eat and then milk at 6 and went into the buck/hen pen to feed. I had another cochin pullet I hatched DEAD! This had to be a hawk. Coons and possums aren't active in the middle of the afternoon.

I am so bummed! How do I find the chicken dinner sign that must be out there for the wild life?

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