And Then There Were Two

I guess I should start putting a Violence Warning on my blog posts...  We've got to stop this!

It happened again.  This morning at 6AM when we walked out to the barn to milk LuLu, I noticed it was unusually quiet in the henhouse.  I normally open up the nesting boxes in preparation for when the automatic door opens and the laying hens go out and eat and then return to lay eggs.  When I opened the henhouse, a grisly scene awaited me.  Something broke into the henhouse overnight and killed 18 laying hens and 2 roosters.  What a kick in the gut!  Last week a mink wiped out all 49 of our meat birds that were two weeks away from butchering and today something killed 20 of my 22 laying hens/roosters.

Am I disappointed?  Of course, but we've got to adapt and improve and do a better job of protecting our birds from the vicious villains that surround us in the woods and fields.  Tricia remarked to me that we haven't bought eggs from a store since 2006.  Twenty years.  I'll get a new crop of birds coming, but it will be 24 weeks or so before they lay their first eggs.

Our egg layers - laid out dead

The varmint gained entry by pulling the 2x4 and chicken wire from the bottom of the henhouse.  To me, that is too much strength for a mink.  Plus, heads were eaten off of several of them.  Seems more like a raccoon, but I'm not sure.  Once the crack was opened, the critter(s) exploited the weak point and the killing spree began.  Blood and feathers everywhere.

Point of entry

One of the killers pulled this one out and popped the staples from the chicken wire and ate her head off.  Lesson #1: Switch from chicken wire to hardware cloth and no more staples.  I'll nail a strip of wood on the top, bottom and sides to firmly secure the hardware cloth.

Upset, but I'm not gonna lose my head over this

One bird was pulled outside of the henhouse, half eaten and lodged in a cattle panel.

The end of the road for the Rhode Island Red

Another was decapitated and dragged 20 yards across the pasture.

Roll out the crime scene tape

Out of the entire flock in the henhouse, there was a lone survivor.  Traumatized and lonely, but she's alive.  We sing "Count your Blessings, Name them one by one"  Here's a blessing.  A surviving hen.  I'm truly thankful that two remain alive.

Walking tall

The other surviving hen was in solitary confinement.  She had been getting out of the pasture fence and scratching all the mulch from around our fruit trees, so a couple of days ago, I caught her and put her in the hardware cloth-protected old rabbit hutches to teach her a lesson/punish her temporarily.  Little did I (or her) know, it saved her life.  Another lone survivor outside the henhouse.  She saw the entire murderous event as the henhouse is right across.  She was fortunate to have been spared a cruel death.

Solitary confinement saved her life

I made a similar trek to the garden with yet another wagon load of dead birds.  

The Hearse

Before 8AM I had another gravesite dug and deposited the slain birds in the garden.  They won't lay any more eggs, but they'll provide fertility to our garden soil.  I'm trying to find the silver lining, you see?

Rest in peace, hens!

In addition to fortifying the henhouse and chicken tractor, my trapping venture went into hyperdrive tonight.  I pulled handfuls of bloody chicken guts and organs I collected and baited up three traps around the henhouse.  Perhaps the greedy predators will return to try to kill the two survivors.  I aim to continue trapping until I catch everything roaming around killing our birds.  I'm positive I'm more stubborn and have more stamina than they do.  Of course I'll report back with the progress.  I'll also order more brown egg laying chicks next week and will work earnestly to alter our henhouse and chicken tractor design to be predator-proof.  

Hopefully, we'll have better news from here on out.  You're probably about as tired of reading about our recent misfortunes as we are of experiencing them!