When the Enemy Finds Your Flock

Backyard chickens are a fun hobby and a great way to provide fresh eggs for the family. In our area there is about a two year grace period from predators. At that point, something will find the girls. We lost 3 chicks this summer, very sad and a waste of money, but it turned out for the best. Five layers and 3 chicks was really too many. We got very diligent about taking care of the girls to avoid further tragedy.

From July until December all has been well, until two nights ago. It was our first day of Christmas break and my first day of Christmas baking. Using a gift card from my hubbies uncle, we enjoyed dinner out and then did some driving around to look at Christmas lights. When we came home, it was very dark...and had been for 3 hours. The dog went outside when the kids went out to lock up the coop and he seemed to see something, but with the rain and wind, we didn't see or hear anything strange. The kids got their Dad to check on the yard and with his OK, they locked up.

Morning came, the kids opened the coop and took out food and water, and we went about our very busy day making deliveries to friends. We got home past dark, so my son had to take the flashlight out to get the eggs since he didn't get to do it during the afternoon. Moments after going out, he returned inside, quickly going into hysteria at finding a headless chicken in the nest box, with an egg on TOP of her. I went out to take care of things and to make sure the coast was clear. The man was picking up pizza. Break means time off from normal cooking--he is a wonderful husband! Once he got home, he helped me clean up the carcass and lock things up. I went to bed thinking about putting a bottom on the coop, which sits on the ground directly, and listened at the opened window when I thought something might be going on out there. Our windows are new and we can't hear what is going on that well outside when they are closed. Exhausted and satisfied all was well enough, I went to bed late.

This morning while my husband was at the grocery store, I went out side to do the chicken duties. The kids are a bit traumatized and I thought it best I go out. Taking apart a lot of the paraphernalia I have around the coop to insulate it, I opened one of the doors. One girl came out but no one else did for a while. That made me think something wasn't right. I called them, and the two newer girls came out slowly. Time passed and when the fourth didn't come out, I knew it was dead upon finding a whole dug under. Not wanting to see that mess, I waited again for my husband to get home. We brought in the groceries and he dutifully took a bag to get the multitude of feathers, the newly killed hen, and the head of the other hen out of the coop. It was a blessing to not have to see Princess. Seeing Cream Puff was bad enough.

Tonight the head of our family blessed me by saying the girls could sleep in the garage in the dog cage. What is amazing is that they walked right in to the garage and then went in to the dog cage. It is as if they knew tonight was going to be a different night. People can think chickens are stupid and untrainable, but our girls know my voice and when I said it was OK for them to come in, they knew just what I had in mind. While I'm sad at how our other 2 died, I'm convinced God was watching over the 3 that survived. Buff was next to each girl that got attacked, she even has blood all over the top of her head from last night's attack. She is our old favorite. The younger girls are the best layers now, and they are very close to each other (our rescue chickens). Thankfully one of them didn't go.

The moral of the story--fortify your coop even if you are in a neighborhood with a privacy fence. At some point the predators will relentlessly come calling and you'll be forced into understanding a little more about farming.