We have lost the chicken war. Two nights ago I went to put the chickens to bed and two more were missing. After closer inspection, Austin found where Brahma had been mercilessly killed by a raccoon. For those people who claim there isn't senseless killing in nature, you're wrong. Raccoons kill chickens by cutting off their heads and leaving their bodies.
If you're going to kill my chicken, at least have the integrity to eat her.
The other australorp was taken by a fox judging by the trail of feathers. We still can't figure out how a fox got into the fenced-in area where the chickens were, and more puzzling, how it got out with a large bird in its mouth.
We have gone from 9 chickens at the beginning of the year to 3 now (not counting our chicks). One ran away, one disappeared months ago, and we lost four this week.
We have been battening down the hatches and making alternate plans for our free-ranging girls. Yesterday we kept them inside the coop (which has a little enclosed run), with a partition to separate them from the chicks. They barely came out of the laying boxes all day, to show us what they thought of the new arrangement.
Austin also began work on a chicken tractor that will be a mobile coop with attached run that we will be able to move around our field, to give them fresh grass and fun things to scratch and eat, and yet keep them safe. He practically built the whole thing yesterday... when it's finished I'll post pics.
