On Sunday and yesterday, Monday, we experienced the "life" part, sort of, with our chickens began to lay their first eggs. Total: two eggs. This morning I looked out a window and saw that one of the girls was out of their fenced yard and seemed to be trying to get back in. I went out and scooped her up without any resistance on her part, which is very unusual for her, and brought her back inside the hen house. Along the way around the pen I noticed the other girls were all huddled up in a corner and there was an abundance of feathers everywhere. With that sinking feeling in my gut I did a head count, then counted again, I must have counted them 6 times.... only 10. Then I counted them by breed and two of our friendliest birds were missing. One of whom laid the first egg on Sunday.
I began a search of our property hoping to find them hiding somewhere, but that was not to be. I found the remains of the first one in the area we named "the love garden". The other must have met her end in the front yard, there was a trail of feathers and then a flattened spot in the grass full of feathers and nothing else (except a fresh pile of scat form the culprit)
I cannot figure out how the critter got into the yard or how the terrified chicken escaped.
Meanwhile, inside the hen house, while I was doing all this searching, another hen was busy laying her first egg.
Although an egg isn't exactly life, she has to start laying eggs so she can create offspring later.
Our chickens are our pets, as well as a means of putting food on the table, and we love them.
Thanks for letting me share.
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