Friday, August 14, 2009

project hatch: the final frontier

so i believe i am officially the worst chicken owner in the world (possibly the universe). as you may recall last time i left you we had 4 chicks... 2 we thought were roosters, 2 we thought were hens. well turns out 3 were roosters and one was a hen. was.

we took the two known roosters to our friends in south jersey and as soon as we removed those roosters we heard that 3rd one crow. jeez!

so down to 1 rooster & 1 hen. a few weeks ago we made plans to spend the night at my parents house so Chris and i could have a date night. before we left we tried to get the two chicks back into the coop unsuccessfully... they love to roam free. normally we close them up once they go in for the night around 9pm. but since we were not home that didn't happen so we just left the coop open for them. i was worried about them but not enough to make the 30 minute (one way) trip back to lock them in.

we return to find the baby hen as a pile of feathers on the nearby compost pile (fitting i guess). damn it! the rooster spent the next week & 1/2 wondering around aimlessly, clearly sad. he refused to spend the nights in the coop and really i have no idea where he ended up sleeping but he'd always show up the next morning. until this morning. i went out back to drink my coffee (thankfully with out the kids) and found a puff of feathers in the side yard. upon further examination by Chris he found the poor guy expired (i'll spare you the gory details)

needless to say we're pretty upset. i'm not sure we're cut out for this farm life.

3 comments:

cassie haw said...

don't give up! being a farming momma is hard work and there will be set backs. try, try again!

Adia said...

i know i know.... i'm still thinking about Spring! do you (guys) have any interest in coming for a swim this week? we have lots of chick food & straw for you :o)

cassie haw said...

i'd love to... but chris is working really hard to make us money and get ready to start teaching... which means i have no car. i'll think about the week and see if there is a time to come over.