All out of chickens

Well, this has been a miserable week, going out and finding mutilated chickens every morning, and not having my favorite, Beautiful, clucking around under foot. I think the predator was sneaking into the coop while it was open during the day, bedding down under the nest boxes (there's a hidden area under there) and then coming out at night to terrorize the chickens. It ate one of the little chicks right before we left for Memorial weekend, and left two dead in the coop for me to find. Then it ate the other two while we were gone. Then it seemed to take a break before coming back for the massacre the last few days.

Unfortunately, I am in no position to spend a bunch of money on materials to build a secure chicken coop. I couldn't continue watching the monster pick the little guys off one by one. So I put out a call for help to the local chicken group, and people swooped in and took the chickens home. One lady took most of them - including the older hens who need a retirement home), a couple others went here and there. All nice homes, and I know the chickens are safe now. Hopefully the predator will move on once it realizes it's food source is gone.

I'll miss having chickens, but I wasn't interested in finding any more of my little feathered buddies torn apart in the coop. After the last kill some of the chickens didn't even want to go in the coop! But we got them put away and checked every corner with flashlights for any lurking predators, and then left them locked inside the secure coop until they left for their new homes. So that is the end of chickens for now...

_