Then, this morning, I saw the clumps of wet feathers behind the compost bins. I thought that a cat might have caught her and dragged her over the fence, but if that were the case, there would probably be more feathers in my yard. I think Stella got into my next door neighbor's yard and couldn't get back over the fence. Then something cornered her there - maybe a coyote or a hawk.
Poor Stella. She had just started to lay.
As for Goldi and Leah, they're getting their wings clipped today.
14 comments:
sorry to hear that
Oh, JGH, I'm so sorry to hear that poor Stella has gone. I'm glad you're clipping Goldi and Leah's wings - seems the right thing to do.
I'm sorry about Stella :( I've been reading a book about doing things yourself and the author had chickens, one was attacked by something but lived (others didn't). Eventually the chicken needed antibiotics and had to be kept separate from the other chickens (an injured chicken really disrupts the "pecking order" and is likely to get hurt or killed by the others apparently). Raising chickens is not for the faint of heart I guess.
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What a sad story, poor Stella. I'm sorry to hear about her struggle :(
She will be missed.
Oh NO! That is horrible. We lost Kahlo to a raccoon in the summer. We heard the raccoon get in and ran down to chase him away. Kahlo was dropped, but suffered so many injuries we had to take her to the vet to euthanize her....poor little thing. Frida, her sister, JUST started laying again last month. I think she was in mourning.
Oh dear. That's sad.
you're going to have to coach me when I get chickens this summer. RIP Stella.
Poor Stella. My mom has had problems with fishers killing her chickens (a fisher also got one of her cats, they are nasty animals).
So sorry to hear about this. She was a pretty little thing and was lucky to live her life with you.
Even though it's normal, but brutal, to lose a chicken to a hawk or coyote, when it's your chicken I know it can't feel so "normal." I decided I couldn't handle chickens in my yard because the losses would be too painful. On the other hand, I think it's good for kids to see life and death on this scale. Teaches them something primal (or something like that).
I'm so sorry for Stella. Poor thing.
So sorry to hear what happened to the pretty gal. Hope Goldi and Leah won't venture very far.
Thanks for all your nice comments. I know I'm taking a risk by letting them free range, but at least I know that while they're alive, they're happy and productive. If only I had a "chicken cam" and could see exactly what got her and how!
Oh, poor Stella. I am sorry to hear this story today, sigh... If you have coyotes or foxes, they probably got her. Our neighbors had free roaming chickens that came into our yard each day. We enjoyed seeing them peck around but our local foxes got them one by one and no more chickens....
Love the snowmen and seeing the kids grow pic by pic...
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