If He Catches You, You're Through

Some of my chickens have found it to be true, the song the roadrunner sings. There has been a rash of raids this week with a resulting loss of two hens and a rooster. I had someone ask me why I didn't just keep the chickens put up, but that would be like keeping your dog in a box, or making the cats sit in a cage all the time. Chickens like to run around and peck and scratch at things. It's a joy to watch them.

Yesterday I let them out for a little while and I thought I was keeping a close eye on them. I kept going outside every fifteen or thirty minutes, had Sue the dog on duty watching them, and had the front door cracked so I could hear any commotion.

By the way, this week was the first time for my baby chicken to foray into the world. I've been anticipating her debut beyond the chicken pen because she's such a vocal little hen and has a lot of different voices to express her little chicken emotions. No, not like Linda Blair in  The Exorcist type voices, just a bunch of chirpy sounds that make me happy to listen to.

Anyway, so I thought I was paying attention. Then a rooster in the front yard sounds an alarm (he didn't pull the fire bell, he just crowed) and I shoot out the door. He's out there by himself and I run around the house and see that everyone is alarmed, even the cats, who have been kittens of interest in the recent deaths. I start counting chickens while I'm running around and find that baby chicken and mama chicken are missing. I'm calling (chicka chicka chicka) and starting to get desperate when I look over and see baby chicken hiding under some pampas grass. I was so relieved, because I was fixing to give up chickens if she was gone. Poor mama chicken met her end, though, probably defending baby. I've seen her go up against the roosters over her chick.

The chickens are put up today. I finally got a print of whatever is nabbing the fowl. The cats can stand down, as they have been cleared by this recent evidence. Once I started looking around, it appears that a whole herd of wild critters crosses through our yard. The print in the photo is about 3 inches long. The best I can guess is coyote. There are smaller prints that might be a fox. Mr. Me says that if it's a fox, we'll never be able to catch it. Just too wily.

I think the way to combat this is to get more chickens. They can be very aggressive in large groups, chasing down wild animals and pecking their eyes out. Not really. It's just if there are more, then I won't miss one or two so badly when they're gone.