My happy little "family" is enjoy a relaxing afternoon on our large deck, shadowed by the looming pine and hemlock. And by family, of course I mean Log Dog and two chickens. Because that's totally normal, right? ;)
Sadly, those two chickens aren't the same two I started with. Alas, I was a bad chicken momma and I take full responsibility for the murder of my Easter Egger, Nugget. Even worse is that I forgot which one was Nugget, and which one was Peeps, and was calling them by the wrong names. Oops.
Nugget was taken just before she was reaching young hen-hood; 4 months old, and probably would start laying in the next few weeks. But selfish me went to hang out with friends and got home after dark, carelessly leaving the coop open. Prime time for the masked marauders of the forest - raccoons. Although the coop is fenced with chicken wire, it's NOT raccoon proof. Within that 45 minutes to an hour past dark, I'm pretty sure a fat momma took my little hen away to her kiddos - I've heard them screeching and squealing in the tree lot next door. I'll admit, I cried. I raised them from 2 day old chicks and am totally responsible for what happened. I pulled up and saw my Silver Laced Wyandotte Peeps looking spooked in the coop and Nugget was nowhere to be found. I searched for an hour, hoping she was wiley enough to escape under the house. The next morning I heard the raccoons going nuts at daybreak as I searched then, too. There were barely any feathers in the pen and no blood. %^$#@%$#@%$&^%$&^
You'd think I'd have better raccoon karma after rehabbing orphaned babies during my internship at the wildlife rehab center. Then again, even with their eyes barely opened, those little velcro-clawed demons were already hissing and snapping at people and their own litter mates! I sure don't own the raccoon kingdom any more favors, that's for sure.
The next day I improved the fence, but it's still not raccoon proof. While I was rebuilding, the neighborhood nuisance dog ran up and tried to eat Peeps! Logan ran down from the deck and literally pinned the dog, saving my confused chicken. She was pretty distressed, as chickens are social and don't like to be alone. Logan loves his girls though and protected her, I was impressed. But I now had the task of finding a new gal pal for Peeps, who seems like she may be getting ready to lay eggs in the next few weeks. I was happy Peeps considers Logan and I as part of her "flock" and got over her stress quickly. She figured out how to escape the pen so whenever I come home from work and call her, she comes running or flying to greet me at the steps! Just like a dog. She'll even climb the 15-20' of steps up to my deck, just to hang out.
So here I am now, with a 4-5 week old "Nugget 2". I'm not sure if that's what I call her... but it's gotta be food related! ;) She's a Rhode Island Red and will be large hen, probably about 8 lbs like my Wyandotte. I could have gotten another Easter Egger, but they were only 2-3 weeks old and very small still; didn't want to have to worry about it escaping through the chicken wire. I was worried about getting an "older" chick since it hasn't been handled much, but the new gal is pretty mellow. Sometimes, when introducing a new chicken, the old chickens will peck it to literally establish pecking order. So far, Peeps has been pretty good. Little chicken is getting used to her new home and the two gals are roaming the deck, devouring random specs of who-knows-what. My little dinosaurs!
My friend Kim just wrote me with chicken name ideas. Marsala!! She's a genius.
I went into the cigar shop in Angel's Camp today and the owner was awesome, so I have a great cigar to go with my beer while I hang out. Extra relaxed!!
And so continue the adventures of a Detroit city-girl and her backyard chickens! Maybe at some point I'll write more about other things...you know, like the job... and the area... and Life Beyond the Chickens... But I'm so relaxed, I'm done writing. ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment