Be Ye Separate

Such is farmlife!

Blessings!

   Well, it happened again...ugh! Last night around 9pm I heard a chicken going off. I asked the girls to go make sure the henhouse was locked up which they did and it was. They told me that one of our hens, who doesn't know she can't fly with her wings clipped was back up in her tree. I figured it wasn't worth going to get her and we left it at that.

   Then around 11 Miss Sarah came in to get me and said she was hearing something outside her window and was going to check it out. I figured it was just the chicken making noise again for whatever reasons. She came rushing back in to say she heard a gutteral growling out by the trees so I bundled up with her and we went back out, armed with a lantern and a hatchet:P

   We walked all over the yard and found nor heard anything more. We went in to the henhouse to count heads and found that 7 of them were missing! Well, it wasn't the first time they would have gone to the barn so we figured we would just leave them as they are surrounded by goats and horse out there. We went back inside after locking everything down again.

   This morning the girls went out to feed and came back in with the news that all three of our bantams were gone. Feathers, blood and mayhem...ugh:s I wonder if it had already happened when we were out there the night before but I think we would have found something then because we had walked all over including out to the barn.

   Two of the bantams were my very favorite. A rooster and hen:( I was planning on penning them and making more of them to decorate our farm and, of course, provide some more eggs:) The other banty was another rooster. He wasn't my favorite at all, in fact I had threatened to put him in the stewpot soon. He was, however, Miss Mary-Anns favorite. That little thing was just plain mean! He would attack you no matter how big you were or what you were doing. He would go out of his way to be a pain. Anyway, she is alright with it as this is simply part of farmlife and you get on with things.

   I'm not sure what Miss SArah heard but we've had issues with mountain lions before and she said it sounded just like that. I don't know if the mayhem was caused by one but the missing carcases tell me it wasn't coons work with the possible acception of one area that might have been a coon due to the amount of blood and feathers. The mountain lions tend to catch up their prey and run off with them leaving very little in the way of evidence. Maybe a few feathers but rarely blood.

   Needless to say, we will be making sure that all chickens are secured. We will also be needing to get a duckhouse built and soon. Nothing, surprisingly has gone after the last 9 ducks we have but I don't want to wait and find out if they will:(

   I'm really bummed about the whole thing, even though I wasn't keen on that one rooster. Not that chickens are cute and cuddly by any means but we are very handson here with our animals and a loss is a loss both physically and emotionally.

This was Charlie, our Buff BantamAnd this was Ferdinand (the sassy one)I can't find the picture of the Buff hen at the moment.

Well, it's just a chicken, right? Life goes on, right? Ugh! I need to busy myself to take my mind off all this for now.:)

   Have a very blessed day!

God be with thee!

Sister Lori

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{ 13:23, Tuesday, April 8, 2008 } { Posted by haflinger }

Sorry to hear the loss of chickens..It happens to us quite often.. Something went on with our yesterday I posted it on my blog.Isn't it funny how attached we become with our animals.. Just a while ago I walked down back to help with the sawmill and saw feathers all around.. So I was attacked front and back yesterday.. Hope you don't loose any more.
Blessings Sister Brenda


Edited by haflinger on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 15:25

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{ 15:22, Tuesday, April 8, 2008 } { Posted by faithfarm }

Sorry about your bantums! Unfortunately its part of living in the country--we had to run off something 2 nights ago--I hate to think about it but I think it was a big cat. I started putting all the babies in the shut in barn till they get bigger. Wish I could say something to make you feel better! Blessings>faithfarm

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{ 09:50, Wednesday, April 9, 2008 } { Posted by beccasue1029 }

Aw I'm sorry about your chickens! I had a beautiful grey banty rooster but he died recently as well. I'm anxious to get more, they are gorgeous!

Becca

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{ 21:00, Tuesday, April 22, 2008 } { Posted by GrandmaRosie }

It's always hard to lose one of your critters. I recently had to kill my rooster. He got to where he attacked everyone. I still have the scars to prove it. I miss that silly bird, but I was concerned he would injure one of my grand kids.