This isn’t the post I had planned for today at all. I wanted to share some pictures and tell a cute story about my niece coming over to meet kittens and chickens. I’ll still share that story another day but today I have to talk about my first chicken loss instead. No pictures or explicit descriptions, but I’m putting the full story after the jump. TW for animal death.
I thought I was doing pretty well at this chicken mom thing. I didn’t lose any chicks in the fragile early stages. I was proud of my coop. My girls were all happy and healthy and adjusting well to life outdoors. I never let them roam unattended.
Still, I lost one of my flock this week to one of my own dogs, through a missed flaw in the coop.
The first part of my evening routine with all the animals is to let the dogs out of the house for a potty break, then bring them in to eat and let the chickens out to free range the yard until dusk. During their potty time before the switch Daisy, my Australian shepherd mix, found and exploited the one weakness in the coop that I hadn’t noticed or considered. The door has a fairly large gap under it, but still much too small for a chicken or any predators I thought. I forgot that chickens are largely fluffy feathers. Apparently, Daisy caught one of the girls poking a curious head out and pulled her out of the coop.
It was too fast for there to be any hope of saving her, and I buried her in the corner of the vegetable garden. When the weather warms up enough for planting I’ll give her some flowers.
My heart breaks for my girl. She didn’t deserve what happened to her, and I failed in my job of protecting her. It’s a reminder for me that all these little lives depend on me and sometimes doing my best can be not enough.
