RIP Betsy
This has not been a good week for my chickens!
A few hours ago I noticed Betsy was not with the others. Since she tends to roam off on her own some, I went a-lookin' for her. There were no signs either of her or of foul play, but my dog was not happy with something I could not see in the juniper, so I rounded up the others, locked them safely away, and took a walk down the road. I soon came across a nice big red fox that was probably protecting his newborn cubs and needs to feed his family too.
A couple of hours later I found the feathers, Betsy's feathers. My dog did me the service of finding her carcass. I must have scared the fox off the first time I went out so he left me her body to deal with.
My once upon a time flock of fifteen is down to only five, and their free range time has now been curtailed to only those times I can be out there with them. They have a large indoor space, an extravagantly large protected run, and an even larger enclosed yard of their own for the other times, so no feeling sorry for my chickens please. Me though. Me you can feel a bit sorry for! I'm very sad losing two of them in one week.
Betsy and I became quite close a few weeks ago when she had injured herself somehow, and here is a post I made about that. https://steemit.com/chickens/@owasco/betsy-in-rehab
I'm going to miss her! And her many big fat brown eggs.
I’m sorry to hear about your feathered baby
Thank you!
Sadness, but life goes on...at least you have the five chickens it will grow like their Mama Betsy and gives you soon plenty of eggs...
Posted using Partiko Android
Yes, true. But she was an especially friendly one, would come to me and let me pick her up. Beautiful too. Thank you for your thoughts!
Yep, foxes take every opportunity. When our 5 weeks old chicks go out to pasture next week, we will be butting heads with our local family of them....
What do you do to enclose them? Electro netting? I might try that next. It's very easy to move around, and with the moveable coop I'm getting tomorrow, maybe I'll have better luck then. I do know someone who keeps her 50 or so ducks and chickens in electro net, and has few problems. They don't even have an enclosed run or coop of any kind, everything is open.
@owasco we tried to have chickens and turkeys, when we lost the first one we tried to let them out only when we were home. but that did not work. The bobcat came in the yard with us here and we have a fenced yard. They got picked off one by one. So now we have none and see no sense getting more. Nature is rough. My husband was fond of one of them, it would sit on his lap while he sat outside having a beer.
A chicken that sits in laps is very odd! It takes a lot of work to keep them safe. And it's probably best to not get attached to them.
But I also can't see myself living without chickens, even if they are just pets. I don't think I'll get more when all of these are gone though. I won't miss the twice a day without fail chores.
Thanks for reading!
@owasco I miss having them but cannot see getting more unless we keep them penned and I do not believe anything should have a life in a pen. My husband would sit outside with a chicken on one lap the cat on the other and a dog on each side of him, oh yeah and a beer in his hand. That was his afternoon ritual.
Hi @owasco,
Thanks so much for partaking in #dailypetphotography! Please follow @dpet for upcoming events.
Our discord channel is up and running, come on over and say hi, lots of avil pet owners are awaiting you there.
https://discord.gg/GYrnsNm
Oh no, oh no, at first I thought you reposted the old post, and the injured chicken would once again be found NOT DEAD after all. For real this time your hen is dead? The fox - feeding its babies - but Betsy! Betsy! Not someone else, not some elderly rooster, but this one. Ok, you have my sympathy, @owasco. We loved our banties back in the day, growing up on the farm. One followed us in the garden, pecking at earthworms as we uprooted the with the weeds. R.I. P. Betsy of the big brown eggs!
!subscribe
✔ Hi @carolkean, you have just subscribed to @owasco!
From now on every new @owasco post will be automatically rewarded with 0.05 SBD or STEEM from your @tipU deposit. First subscription reward has been sent :)
Subscribe and increase the reward for @owasco :) | For investors.
What is this? I mean, I LOVE it. Thank you thank you thank you! But what is it? Every single time I post?! It's like a windfall for me!
I've been working hard just so that I can get my upvote up to worth something more than nearly nothing. I love rewarding posts. I'm going to have to look into this.
THANK YOU FROM EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY OF MY HEART!
Cue the Wizard of Oz: "I don't know how it works!"
And I'm finding the little @tipu reminder looks like clutter or span, the way it's showing on on EVERY post of EVERY Steemian I subscribe to. Do we really want this? How does this work?
It's an experiment, and I wanted to try it, and that's that.
If anyone gets sick of it, let me know!
**You're welcome!!
I feel sorry for you but the world is full predators and this is nature. My first I lost all to? Birds of prey perhaps.
One of my wolf's once had a great time too, the rest was watching.
Next they stayed inside, now I have none.
Posted using Partiko Android
My little dachshund got more of them than any natural predator until I trained him not to. That took me several years. I still don't leave him out when they are out unless I am there. Now there are two reasons I can't let my chooks free range all day. boo hoo. They have been so healthy!
Well the dachshund is a breed to hunt so it is his nature.
Posted using Partiko Android