We took delivery of the new chickens last week. I didn’t finish the coop a moment too soon; those little dinosaurs have GROWN. The big girls were shocked by the new arrivals and spent the first day complaining at the top of their lungs. They calmed down some by the second day, but then transitioned into bullies. They chase the little ones around and peck at their hindquarters (I swear I raised them better than this). I’ve warned them that the little ones will not be little forever and they are vastly outnumbered.
Early this morning I saw the motion detector light on the coop had gone on and looked out to see a raccoon testing the defenses. It sniffed at the door, then went underneath only to come back out within a minute and wander away. This is a developing story.
Dr. Evil gave me a fancy drone for my birthday, so naturally it’s been raining since I got it. I managed to take it out twice, but only for a few minutes. It’s thrilling to fly. Hmm . . . make that thrilling combined with stressful, kind of like when you first get the training wheels off your bicycle, or the first time you lead a marching formation.
Speaking of Dr. Evil, she has not left the compound since March 14th! Big round of applause. Me, I’ve been to the grocery store for curbside pickup, to the feed store, and to Lowe’s for building supplies. In other words, not much different, save for no meals out. I miss someone else cooking. How are you folks dealing with life in the ‘rona?
the no restaurant thing is a killer. i had no idea how nice it was to have someone else make me a drink…
congrats on your chickens! I trust you have across the ground fencing of some sort to keep the borrowing animals out?
we had a chicken lose it’s head to a critter one night. not sure how the animal snaked the head out of the fence to cut it off, but surely it was disappointing to not get the meat…
Yeah, all the chicken murders have had one thing in common: Kill, nibble a bit, leave 98% of dead chicken. The first kills by the skunk actually killed two hens, nibbled a bit then left the carcasses. I dig the whole circle of life thing, but try to live up to the other meme of snout-to-tail usage. Turns out (by trail camera evidence) that our particular raccoon is on a tight schedule—0340 visits two days in a row. Dr. Evil’s brother suffered a one night loss of a dozen or so hens in one night, all of them simply decapitated.… Read more »
if you’re inclined, @natureismetal on twitter or instagram is really something…
Well that was alarming.
Oh, and the current chicken run features buried 1/4 inch hardware cloth. Still figuring the best configuration for an extended run.