The Bad News.

Tuesday, June 4th, won’t go down in history as one of my favorite days. It began normally enough. I got up at 6:00 to let the chickens out of the chickshaw, but as I did, I noticed a good number of feathers scattered about the place. My first thought was that perhaps they’d been fighting and that I’d find a chicken that was missing a handful of feathers.

Instead what I found was a handful of feathers that was missing a chicken.

My theory went that when the chickens were put up on Monday night, one got missed and was left out somehow. They’re secured within an electric fence, but since it was connected to a solar charger, I’d been turning it off overnight because the chickens are protected, locked up in the chickshaw.

In any event, I wasn’t going to accidentally leave any chickens out again. On Tuesday night we made sure all eleven remaining chickens were secured in the chickshaw.

Then on Wednesday morning, our eldest got up early and opened the chickshaw to let them out. Ten came out, one looked like it was curled up asleep and not moving.

Chickens don’t curl up to sleep.

Neither should they feel cold to the touch.

Of course, on realizing something was dreadfully wrong, she came in to wake me, telling me we’d lost another chicken. I wasn’t having any of it though, because all of the chickens were secured the night before, safe and sound in the chickshaw, we made sure of it.

When I found the chicken to be, in fact, dead, I turned it over to find about half of it missing. Whatever had gotten to it had torn the poor bird apart and pulled it piece by piece through the one-inch wire mesh.

The Good News.

Since then I’ve rearranged our set-up.

The perimeter fence, which connects to the fence that surrounds the garden, is now connected to a mains-powered electric fence charger, I’ve also moved the solar charger next to the chickshaw and connected it to the wire mesh floor – the chickens won’t notice it, but anything trying to get at them from below will get a series of electric shocks as a deterrent.

Since then, we haven’t lost a single bird, but I still have no idea what did it.

My first thought is that it was a fox – and I’ve heard them around here with their creepy freak-you-out ‘vixen screaming’ at about ten pm – but I don’t see a fox managing to tear a bird apart through a wire mesh. Of course, I could be wrong.

My second thought is a raccoon – and I’ve seen one, once, on our back porch earlier this year – but I don’t see a raccoon jumping an electric fence. Of course, I could be wrong.

If I catch whatever it is, I don’t intend on showing it any mercy at all.

The Rest of the Week.

Tuesday’s loss being so closely followed by Wednesday’s meant that both days were derailed, Wednesday especially, so most of my plans for the week went by the board.

I do have something else to talk about, but this has been an unusually distressing week, and this isn’t one of my everyday excuses for not having made progress. Which is ironic, because I have.

More on that in a little bit, a rare event, a second post this week.

Meanwhile, don’t forget to count your chickens.

Categories: Animals and Pets, Chickens, Predation