This post is too sad. This morning I woke up to an empty coop and a lot of feathers. Not a single 'girl' is left. We are very sad and have cried a lot. I feel like I have completed a chicken keepers rite of passage. I have suffered a loss to a predator. We are in shock. Not good. I had to confess to Euan I did not lock up the coop last night. I thought they would be fine, they have been fine before. I did not think foxes could get in our garden since the fences were repaired, but there is a gap and one of the neighbours fences is down that I did not know about. My poor girls and poor Euan. The garden seems awful without our bundles of fun. Euan has not been backward in coming forward and telling me exactly what he thinks of me and my chicken keeping skills. He was very angry and upset with me, but he has cooled off now. This Winter the weather and the chickens have trashed the garden, I mean mud bath. A house move is not out of the question and I had been vaguely thinking there would/could come a time when rehousing the chickens would be necessary. I have never 'given up' a pet, I am always a 'hang on to them at all cost' kind of person. I love 'rescue' pets not abandoning pets. I have been spared any more worry about chickens. Of course we want more, Euan has already picked names for three white ones...but I know it is no longer practical for us at the moment. Another 'Era' is over. What a happy little episode it was too. Those girls were really loved and made us very happy.
XXX
