RIP!

mama hen
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/50173102@N04/

This is my mama hen. She's been sitting on eggs for at least a week. I've been patiently waiting to have little chicks running around that I don't have to raise.

As you know, from previous posts, I allow my chickens to roam freely so as to have the freshest, best tasting, and most nutritious eggs. This practice is a gamble. As you may also know chickens are very tasty indeed.

They are also very low on the food chain.

My coop is surrounded by cattle panels so the chickens can run in and out of the coop but dogs can't. The downfall of this plan is that other small varmints can also move in and out of the cattle panel squares. So, I open the chicken coop door in the morning and then close it at night keeping all my chickens safe from nocturnal predators.

Well, last night I got home late. I'm sure you can already see where this going can't you?

I now have 12 chickens. 11 hens and 1 rooster. All but 1 hen have been roosting in my carport. That's a whole annoying story by itself. So, this one mama hen is in the nesting box. Well, I still go open the coop and close it up in hopes that they will start roosting in the coop again.

Okay, back to last night... I got home late and neglected to ask someone else to do it. This morning I opened the coop and black feathers were all over the place. Not only that, eggs were broken and scattered. :(

I was extremely disappointed as you can imagine. In case you haven't been up to speed, I have to tell you that we've had quite the possum problem. So, this morning I was ready to shoot something!! I spent all day mourning my mama hen and all her unborn babies.

Then, as I was typing this post, I heard an odd commotion outside. One chicken was running around in the dark. That's weird!! I wonder what's wrong with this weird bird?? I finally catch her which is no easy task. Ever seen that scene in Rocky where he has to chase a chicken to improve his agility? Its cuz its hard!!! So anyway, I catch her and notice that she has no chest feathers. Eeeew! But....could it be? Possibly? Maybe? I count the birds in the carport and OH MY GOSH!!! It's my dead bird back to life!!! Hip Hip Hooray! So, the poor thing lost all her babies. I'll miss the little chicks but maybe she'll still be in the mood to try it again.

I think tomorrow will be trap buying day....