We still only have the two white ones (see the new chickenhouse post for a photo of one - I didn't have the heart to photograph today), with no survivors returning. I have mended the coop, but tonight they will stay indoors so Mr. Fox won't start a habit of chicken terror.
The girls have done well, responding well to the remaining two and not at all wanting to give up on chickens. I realized later that this was my fear - that they would disengage from the process, not wanting to love the remaining two. In fact, we have one survivor I wasn't counting because he seemed so much beyond hope. Last night, Brian brought in one, with wing broken (and perhaps a leg?), neck at an angle, who was alive. He set it on an old pair of soft cut-off sweats in the cage in the garage, and with a lot of love and water/food delivery from Emily, he seems a bit more perky than he did this morning, and looks at us, and tries to get up every so often. I told Emily that if he survives the night I'll call the vet - I really thought the chicken would give up and die. This is a black one - I *think* the one Hazel called Stripey, though the stripe is gone and only a few white feathers remain among his mostly black ones.
So we have three chickens - 2 are roosters - but now, these are staying with us, unless the neighbors have us arrested for crowing.
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4 comments:
Oh Nancy, I'm so sorry! I know you probably don't "love" the chickens in the same way the girls do, but it is so hard to see them sad--although they handled it well. And you put so much work into the chickens. I'm with Eva on hating the fox, although he was only being a fox.
Thanks Ser- Today was particularly awful - I actually ended up taking the badly injured survivor to the vet, where he explained that though the nerve damage to his twisted neck *might* heal, and we could deal with the broken wing, the two together were not good - we ended up having him euthanized (yes, I paid almost $80 to have a chicken euthanized - but I hated the idea of him getting an infection and dying in more pain, later)
I imagined many things about having chickens, but never that it would be so heartbreaking.
Nancy -
How horrible! I feel for you and your girls. We lost several chickens over the years to raccoons during the night despite having them in a huge, totally sealed coop. They came up through the floor boards. It's very difficult to not consider the chickens as pets, especially when kids are involved. I'm glad to hear the girls are handling the loss so maturely...you should be proud.
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