***WARNING*** the following post may offend some people!

Well there has been a death in the family.... actually 39!!! and a couple close calls... a Huge dog got in the chicken pen and killed 39 of our chickens!!! The dog also bit into Dolly's (my girl duck) leg, but she is getting around ok. and one hen is literally paralyzed with fright!!!


THE STORY OF MY CHICKENS....
My sister, mom, grandma, and I ordered 25 chicks this spring and waited 2 months for them to come in the mail... yes they arrived one Monday morning at the post office, I walked in and heard... chirp... chirp... oh I was so excited!!! got the precious babies home and in the pen and turned on the heat lamp and gave them food and water!!! Oh they were so small, and didn't move around much, I was kinda worried if they were ok... well I had to get back to work, but at noon when I went home they had gotten so active!!!

they were running from one side of the pen to the other and crashing into the wall!!! It was the cutest thing I had ever seen!!! Well about 12 weeks went buy with the chicks in my garage in a pen...


they were growing so fast I was having to feed and water them twice a day... in that 12 weeks I had worked very hard at fixing a really nice chicken pen out on the south side of our propriety, there was already a "hen house" there (the man before us had hogs in it but it worked for chickens too)

all I had to do was build a fence around for them to have a place to get outside and run around and pick and scratch in the dirt... we put the chicks out side and I was so nervous the first week I was afraid a snake or cat or dog would get them!!! well they make it ok and were growing so much.

It takes a hen 6 months from the time they hatch out to start laying so that meant our girls would start laying in October... there is nothing better than a fresh egg! About 2 months ago, Alta my mother-in-law, had a hen that started setting on some eggs, well she hatched out 14 chicks and Alta gave them to me.

they were alot smaller than the others but I thought they would all get along eventually!!! The morning of August 17th was already a sad day for me, I was going to the funeral of my dear friend Dorine, I went by the house and picked up Donny and we headed to the funeral. Now there is always a red chick out in the yard... she will not stay in the pen, so she started running after the pick up and I joked that she wanted to go to the funeral with us. See Dorine loved chickens and that was one bond that we had!!! So we went to the funeral and the lunch and on the way home we just saw the ducks... and Donny commented that the chickens wern't running to the fence like they always did... so we drove over there and it looked like a scene from a world war 2 movie...

but instead of dead solders laying every where it was dead chickens... feathers every where... time stood still... I cried!!!!

We found dog paw prints and later talked to my mom and she had seen a dog running by there... the boy duck.. Dave... was ok actually he was pissed off... and dolly his girlfriend was limping and her left hip was a little bloody... and in the hen house there was 1 hen who was paralyzed with fright, and a baby chick hiding behind the nests. that evening we went out to pick up all the dead chickens and we found a big black hen that was perfectly ok and protecting that baby!!!! I have named her lucky momma! I am very sad about the loss of the chickens but the ag office is going to let me borrow there incubator! so we will start all over and this time I am going to turn our chicken pen into an unbreakable fortress... hot wire, electric shock fence and razor wire are on my shopping list!!! I dare another dog to try it... I have a 12 gauge waiting for you!!!