One of the risks of having animals is that sometimes things go wrong. These risks increase when we are not at home but the animals are. They really increase when da Wolf is not at home - he is our barnyard protector.
He spends a lot of time on patrol....running around the perimeter fencing and making sure the right animals are Inside the fence and the "other" animals are Outside the fence.
For now, da Wolf is on holidays. Apparently, the wildlife in the Valley got the email. The word has probably been spreading faster than an oil spill.
Our Valley friends have been taking care of our place while we are gone. They stop by twice a day, feed and water the chickens and generally check around and see that nothing is amiss.
Now, something is amiss.
My poor chickens.
Three down, seven plus the rooster left. They're probably knocking their little chicken knees together in fright.
Turns out an owl paid a visit. The owl was IN the chicken coop. We have a piece of wood that we prop up against the small chicken door that leads out into their run. Either the chickens knocked the wood over or the owl knocked the wood over.
When our friends opened the man door to go in the coop, they found 3 dead chickens, 8 severely freaked out chickens and a broken window with quite a bit of blood on the sill and pane of glass.
They think the owl tried to get out of the coop by flying into the window. Who knows? There is enough blood on the broken glass to suggest the owl smashed the glass and hurt itself on the window pane.
I don't know why the owl wouldn't have left by just walking out the little chicken door.
They are a lot of owls in the Valley right now. However there is also a lot of other wildlife as we see tracks of all kinds of animals around. So there should be a good variety of food for them. I don't know why they are picking off chickens, but they are.
Maybe it is "easy" for them, like going through a drive-thru at Tim Horton's? I dunno. We'll be back home next week and more importantly, he'll be back home next week.
For now, I'm not saying a word to this guy.
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He'd be distraught.
5 comments:
Dogs are a mans best friend and it seems your dog is your animals best friend as well! Poor chickens!
Oh Annie, how horrible! That is one reason I am always so hesitant to start my own flock of laying hens. I become so attached to them. We have owls all around us too and hear the fateful scream of something in the night, then the loud, "hoot hoot."
I wanted to tell you that I received my book from the giveaway you had that I won. It is great! Thanks so much.
Oh how sad to loose some of your flock like that. Those poor chickens must have been terrified!
I sure hope the rest of the chickens will be okay. I know they are counting the days until da wolf gets home.
We are now home again and the chickens are very happy to see us...and da Wolf too.
We got 5 eggs this morning and I will be keeping them to incubate. I want quite a few more though before we start
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