The Great Chicken Massacre of 2015

January 20, 2015 will always be remembered at the Lynch Homestead as the day of the great chicken massacre. I woke leisurely at 7:30 that morning and pulled open the curtains to find a back yard filled with feathers. Quickly throwing on some clothes I ran out the door and too the coop to find evidence of an attack. There was not a live chicken to be found. Chicken one and two were snatched from the roosting bar where they slept. The third and fourth made a run for it but were taken down just outside the run. Chicken five ran towards the house but was caught along the way. Six and seven made it to the fence line, but not through. Eight was caught in the orchard and nine, who was the only one with a body to recover, laid beside the burn barrel. We decided it was likely raccoons that attacked because whatever it was had to be able to go through or over the fence, reach roosting bars, make little noise and we found feces beside chicken remains that looked like it belonged to a raccoon.

The chicken business has been tough! After battling the neighbor's dog and losing 5 to him and two more (one to another dog, one to a broken egg inside her) I thought we had finally resolved the issues. We were ready to move beyond the chicken deaths and get ready for new birds a little wiser to what to expect. I never imagined my (poor) decision to leave the coop open on an unseasonable warm evening led to the rest of our flock being destroyed. Thankfully the girls were away spending the night at their grandma's house (thus the waking leisurely at 7:30) so they did not see the mess the raccoons had left behind. It took my husband and I a couple hours to clean up the feathers and pieces of birds that were left strewn across the back yard and to clean up and close up the coop. My husband was very sweet, taking care to console me because he knew how upset I was.  I spent the rest of the day looking for any chickens that might have gotten away and might be hiding. I knew it was highly unlikely considering there were individual spots where the birds were attacked and all were accounted for, but I wasn't ready to admit it.

When the girls came home they were excited to go check for eggs so I had to break the news to them. There were tears and we talked about what happened (in non-graphic toddler terms) and we talked about how it's okay to be sad and upset. These girls spent every day since the chickens arrived last April tending to them so having none was going to be an adjustment. Through the tears Amelia ran outside to see if it was true and she turned to me and said, "We still have a coop, are we still getting our new chickens?" I told her we would be and she went right to work telling me all the things we needed to do differently to "save our chickens from Roscoe (the neighbor's dog) and those bad coon rats." I guess they are pretty resilient when it comes to the loss of animals! (This may work in our favor when it comes time to butcher for the first time.)

So now we are back to square one with chickens and will once again be anticipating the arrival of our new flock and counting down the days until we have eggs again. We will be making a few adjustment to the coop before welcoming the new flock and we are discussing movable runs to be able to better protect the flock. I still prefer to free range our chickens, but in the end we will have to decide what is best for the homestead as a whole. Spring will mean many new beginnings!

Farewell First Flock