The Case of the Missing Chicken

As we wade through a sea of broken stuff in our house--washer, dryer, t.v., carpet--we have a seemingly never-ending stream of strangers (five yesterday to work on the carpet! that's more than the entire installation team a year ago!) roaming about our abode. Thankfully, it's all still under warranty (which we wisely extended, knowing how repairs constantly pop up around here), and thankfully Buck was home.

We've gotten in the habit of letting the chickens out after lunch to free range. We need to keep them cooped up before noon, so they'll lay eggs in the nesting boxes and not out and about our lawn :) But by mid-afternoon, they are on prairieland bug patrol.

Sadly, in the midst of our distractions, something snuck in and left only a pile of feathers behind. We combed the grasses, followed the clues (feathers randomly dropped across the lawns and into the woods), and found no further trace of our egg-laying friend Chick-fil-A, a.k.a. Necklace. How the limping chicken and the brooding/bra-wearing/non egg laying chickens survived while our other bird did not, is beyond me.

We searched the internet for ideas of what might have been the culprit--we were down to wild dog, fox, and chicken hawk. After Buck watched a few youtube videos of these various animals attacking chickens (for research purposes), we eliminated the hawk theory (our birds are too big, and there was no blood, so the hunter carried away its prey).

A couple days later, Graysen went up to check on the still cooped birds and heard a growl. He looked over at the prairie grass and saw a bright red fox coming back for seconds. G$ started running for the house, the fox started running for the hills--but not before Buck and Caelan saw it bounding away, too. 

Buck snagged a gun and waited in a stadium chair on the hill part of the next afternoon, but the fox did not return. We're experimenting with having Chauncey out to guard the chickens. He doesn't seem interested in chasing them, and the chickens aren't afraid of him, so it might be a good partnership. That dog has got to do something to earn his keep on the farm ;)




"Who's the new guy?"
"IDK--looks indoorsy to me."
"What's he doing up here anyway?"
"Well, who wouldn't want to hang out with us?!"
"Oh, Honey, you're so right! I was just saying to Josie . . . ooh, BUG!"
And both run squawking away--we're pretty sure conversations like this happen ALL the time on our farm ;)



Buck has a new chicken friend :)



Guard dog extraordinaire :)



So, half our potato plants shriveled up and died. The boys spent some time digging in the dirt and this is what they came up with. Better than no 'tatoes at all!




Don't you love our stylish new melon fence? The chickens were eating all our cute little watermelons and the only pumpkin we had growing on the vine. We are out of chicken wire and posts, but we needed something fast to protect what fruit remained. So, out came the boys' hockey goal nets and some landscaping cloth . . . a little bit of duct tape and some landscaping hooks from the garage, and we are homesteading ugly :) But so far no deer and no chickens! Moles though, ugh, those stinkin' moles.