So did you miss me?

Sorry I haven't written in so long my life has been a mess. But brief catch up I was down to Red my rooster, 2 3/4EE/1/4EE hens, and my brown leghorn hen this summer. When I for some stupid reason agreed to let my brother watch them and the 13 eggs the black 3/4EE/1/4EE hen was sitting on. And he lets something eat the brown leghorn hen, the black 3/4EE/1/4EE hen, and all 13 eggs she was sitting on while I was working fairs. And then didn't tell me about it until I came home and discovered it.

So that sucks. My grandmother because she is an awesome person gave me 2 of her hens a buff orpington and a hen who is at least part Rhode Island Red (might just be crappy hatchery quality, might be a mix I really don't know). Who are both doing fine.

But my flock may be growing again soon, my Ornithology class in college was hatching chicks to train, which failed with only one chick hatching who has ended up being raised by the student aid in the class. But the teacher ordered more and my little chick is doing well in training and I may be allowed to take it and possible some other chicks home at the end of the semester. But we will see and we will see if I'm back in my actual home soon or not. I'll try to stop by more often.

Death and raccoon's again

I had been having eggs being eaten and destroyed, we discovered that it was raccoons eating them. So 2 weeks ago I caught the 1st raccoon,  another raccoon was found to be doing the same thing so I caught it ( it was female and possibly mother of the first) but it wasn't in the trap first thing that morning but got it's self trapped mid-morning ( the chickens where on lock down and safe).  That night (Monday) I went out and came home to one of the little roosters and 3 hens on the deck. The one popdoor hadn't closed right and something had forced it open, and on top of that it was pouring rain and thundering and lightning. Red and the bantam hen where inside safe, and one of the other hens was in the trap. I got everyone off the deck and into the coop, and look for the other 4 hens and the other little rooster with no luck. With the storm in full force and no birds in sight I had to give up.

The next morning one little hen showed up and the rest never did. The missing little rooster's feathers where scattered from the old dead tree (where I did look) part way down the yard, nothing of the 3 hens ever turned up. The hens where all 3/4 EE/ 1/4 BA (Red and the BA/EE hens) that where hatched last fall, two where black with red lacing on the neck and one was the classic EE coloration.

5 Days later I caught another raccoon, who has very aggressive and did something I had never heard a raccoon do it screamed. And I don't mean the shrieks and other random noises raccoons make, I mean sounds like a human child is screaming. It was one of the creepiest noises I've heard. But it has now been 4 days and no new raccoons/predators have been caught and no other deaths or stolen eggs have occurred so hopefully this is the end of it for now.

I gave away the mean brown leghorn rooster a few weeks ago to someone to butcher, plus these losses I'm down to 6 hens and 2 roosters. And the remaining brown leghorn rooster will hopefully go to a new home with my grandmother soon, as her rooster Hawk has become mean and she plans to butcher him and take the brown leghorn. If that happens I will be down to 6 hens and 1 roosters, if she doesn't end up taking him I'll probably give him aways as 2 roosters is way to much for 6 hens. And that's what's been going around here.

Changes

I haven't posted much as life got busy and my life changed drastically. My Mother passed away very suddenly in April and everything is kind of up in the air right now. But as to the animals I gave away the attack rooster last night to a women who is going to butcher him when she butchers her meat birds. Here is him in his box waiting to be picked up.

But Spot who had a serious neck wound last month, and who we believe had 3-4 strokes in the last two months, pasted away last night/early this morning. He is the last of our cats descended from my original cats. He is now buried about 10 feet from his mother (Blue Eyes) and his litter mate Rex. He is pictured here with his other litter mate Dot who passes away several years ago, Spot is the one with his head down.

They don't respect the porch

As you can see Nick doesn't really care about the chickens.

Green House

One of my birthday presents is a green house!

My Baby Girl is Gone

My beautiful CM girl the last of my original flock was killed today. My sister came home to her hit and dead on the road and moved her body so it wouldn't get hit again. So I came home to her cold, bloody body. She is buried next to Blue Eyes. I've cried until I can't cry anymore, most of the deaths in resent years have hurt but where expected. This was so unexpected and she was my baby, I had raised her since she was two days old. With the new coop and no sign of the fox of late I haven't had to face death in the flock besides the few chicks who died at hatch. One of the chicks is her little girl, but it only helps a little. And it hurts because I threw out the last her eggs when I discovered the hidden nest she had started before molting. She would have been 6 years old March 17, 2014.

Growing Babies

The babies turn 11wks old Wednesday/Thursday so I decided to get some new pictures of them.But first Red came to check if I had food and to defend me from the little roosters.

Mom and babies where out foraging on their own.

And these 3 where following in hopes of food, but I'm kind of pissed off at them, the one has taken for going after people and the other two just follow without doing anything. But they have done some growing since I've posted pictures.(if you are interested in any of them let me know, as I said the other two are fine and don't bother people.)

And to the babies!:

 And Butterscotch tried to help me take pictures:

And all the other girls where in the coop, the cross bantam hen and the brown leghorn hen (who has like the boys done a lot of growing) are currently the only ones laying. My oldest girl the Cuckoo Maran was just keeping them company as she is in the middle of molting.

 You can also here that I have a new metal trash can for feed as my other one's lid rusted out.

The little roosters again the one in the middle is the one who is attacking/threatening people

 This is a stray cat that keeps showing up, his friendly and lets us pet him. He is also well fed. The other cats of course don't like him because he's male. I think he probably lives at my neighbors as they have a large number of cats and he probably gets more attention and sometimes food here so he comes to visit.

 And Red making sure I'm absolutely not going to feed him, you can see the toe he broke as a 4wk old and his kind of creepy long spurs.