Well, the year ended on a sad note for our chickens unfortunately! Our silver laced Wyandotte, Bella, died suddenly the day before Christmas Eve. We were up in NM visiting my mom and my sweet neighbor called me and told me she had found Bella dead in the roost. She had been acting strangely the day before – like, completely out of character for her so I was concerned but I never thought she would be dead within a matter of 18 hours. We still have no idea what happened but I have my theories. I’ve been a chicken mama for only 6 months but am starting to realize what a stressful burden it is! Tommy says I care too much about them since we bought them for laying purposes originally but I’ve just fallen in love with the silly things and now am very invested in their well being even though it is an emotional roller coaster! Haha!
There are so many predators around here that we constantly have to be out with them if we are letting them free range. There is a bobcat that comes by at least 2 or 3 times a week to try and attack them while they’re in the coop. I saw him one day and not thinking, ran outside in my bare feet and threw William’s plastic lunch box at him! Haha! We’ve also had a coyote scaling our block wall and mulling around the yard the past 2 days. Tommy said he was just like a cat – jumping up on the wall with ease and then balancing across the top before turning around and trying to take a poop right into our yard! Little shit! We also have hawks all over the place. Our littlest one, Fifi, was almost grabbed the other day by a falcon. Thank God Ozzie was paying attention to the sky and gave her a quick warning so she could scurry behind the water tank. I swear, it never ends. I’m almost tempted to have Tommy build them a super coop so we don’t have to let them out anymore and worry about them! I don’t know, time will tell. They have been providing a lot of entertainment and delicious eggs but I’m not sure the benefits outweigh the costs. I’m also very weary now of every little thing that happens with them because I’m afraid they’ll just drop dead like Bella did. Gaaaah! Anyway, I’ll keep you all posted on these 3 chooks. Hopefully we can keep them around for another year! Fingers Crossed!
