They've been doing so well up until now...
Last night seems to have become a turning point, though. At about 10 or so, Rusty went down to the garage to get something, and discovered that one of the girls was out of the enclosed portion of the yard, and couldn't get back in. It was dark, and she was cold and alone (awww), so R put her in the coop, admonishing her that if she had stayed where she was supposed to, she wouldn't be in this predicament.
In the wee small hours, R was woken up by the sound of the chickens being attacked by something. He was sleeping in the spare room at the back of the house (he wanted to get up at 5am, and he knows how grumpy I am at being woken at oh-god o'clock, only to have the snooze button used 15 times...) which is just as well. He opened the back door, at which the @$%&*!ing offender scarpered, fortunately not taking one of our chooks with it. The morning showed the coop full of feathers, and one of the girls injured and in shock. She seems to be a lot better this arvo, though, so she should be ok. We haven't been locking them in the coop, because we haven't needed to - they take themselves to bed at bed time, and no-one has bothered them in all the time we've had them. The effing cats in this neighbourhood, who wander all over the effing place, into my effing house to eat my cats' effiing food, and now trying to eat my effing chickens as well... Not happy, Jan.
Rusty got home this arvo, and went out to check on the chooks. I got home, had a look at Injured Chook, and then realised there were only 3. "They were all here when I got home!" Rusty exclaimed, "That was only half an hour ago!"
So the tally stands at one injured (although on the mend) and one missing. They all seem to have been through enough trauma that they are not laying.
Sigh. Obviously a sacrifice needs to be made to the Chicken Gods, or something. Good thing we're having lamb for dinner, eh?
Daylight Savings Time
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Just got a weird bug in my brain, as a result of a conversation yesterday,
and wrote this in the comments of a friend's blog. And then realized that
it'...
2 years ago
3 comments:
So sorry to hear about trouble in Chickentown! Hope it turns out ok
Oh my goodness. How horrible!
Mostly we close the door each night but some nights it's just too cold and we couldn't be bothered. We have been lucky it seems but then we are much closer to town than you.
Are you sure it was a cat? I didn't think cats could take down a chook. I thought that's what foxes did. And the MO of attacking multiple birds is more fox than cat.
I hope the remaining girls recover.
(doorbitch says wringed - she's sometimes psychic)
poor chooks!
my vote is for a fox, too, unless you got a clear sighting. apparently you can get foxes in as far as Burwood (at least) and black snakes anywhere along the train line - a lady I met from Ashfield told me some of her chooks were taken out by snakes.
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