Chicken Little

There is an old folk tale called "Chicken Little" in which a chick, Henny Penny, has an acorn fall on her head and believes the "sky is falling."  She goes around telling all of her animal friends in her paranoia.  The moral of the story is not to be 'chicken,' but to have courage.

Well, our chickens need courage right now.  If you remember, I posted earlier this month about trying (unsuccessfully) to move the hens that have taken to roosting in the barn out to the chicken tractor in the pasture with the other hens.  Oh, how I wish (and I'm sure they wish) that I had been successful.  You see, the sky was not falling on them last night, but something else was.  When we walked out to milk Daisy and Rosie this morning, I saw signs of a struggle in the stall in which we store some of our square bales of hay.

In the opening of the television show, "Law and Order," the narrator always begins with this quote:

In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime; and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.

 As detectives flocked to the scene, we captured evidence that showed there was a struggle:

Evidence of a crime

It didn't take us long to find the body.  Poor Sally Henny Penny fell victim and became prey to a predator last night.  We milked the cows late last night after coming in from a Company party after 10 pm.  All was well at that time.  So the killing took place after around 11 pm.  There were no eyewitnesses to the crime, at least none that speak in human language that we understand, and though we reached out to those in the vicinity that might have witnessed the carnage, "cluck cluck" and "moo" were the only testimony we could capture.


The victim's body

In performing a redneck autopsy and looking at Sally's wounds, we find that deep lacerations and the resulting blood loss no doubt was the cause of death.  The weapon used by the perpetrator in this crime was not found at the crime scene, but if I had to guess, the weapon of choice was teeth.  The motive appears to be thrill of the kill and not hunger since the victim was not consumed.  This motive is consistent with what a dog might do.  The suspected killer is a neighborhood dog, but in our free country, everyone is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. 


The autopsy

Things are not looking good in the prosecution of this case.  We have a crime scene, a body, and witnesses who will not talk.  Detective work is still on-going regarding the perpetrator's access to the victim's habitation.  Below, I've photographed one area under a gate, which might have allowed canine entry.  We'll wedge a landscape timber underneath that area until a more permanent security feature can be installed.


Possible entry point?

This has not been the first time this sort of thing has happened.  Last year around this time, we lost more birds.  I have a hog wire perimeter fence.  This provides excellent protection against bigger dogs, but a smaller one can weasel his way through the 4 inch by 5 inch holes.  We know a smaller dog did the killing last year.  In response, and at no cheap cost, I purchased about 150 feet of welded wire with 2 inch by 4 inch holes and used tie wire to fasten to the existing fence.  This is shown below.  I didn't have the funds to do that around the entire perimeter, but installed it on the side where I was sure the dog was getting in.  And it worked to deter additional crimes!  Until last night... 

What's next?  Concertina wire?

So, I buried poor Sally Henny Penny in the garden.  She can at least provide nutrients to the crops next Spring.  Those nutrients come at a high price, though.  I wrote this post sort of 'tongue in cheek,' but losing a bird is expensive.  I have no idea of how old Sally was, but some quick research tells me that Barred Rock hens can lay upwards of 170 eggs over 3 years, with many laying WAY more than that.



A final resting place for Sally Henny Penny

So, putting the pencil to the paper and being conservative in number, 170 eggs over 3 years is 510 eggs.  510 eggs is 42.5 dozen eggs.  42.5 dozen eggs at $3 per dozen equates to $127.50 in lost revenue, not even mentioning the cost that went into raising her to her egg laying years.

This strengthens my resolve to catch the killer and bring him or her to justice!