A Sad Tale

This week it is time for me to introduce our seven new pullets and cockerels. But I have some very sad news indeed.

Yesterday, on the first morning out of the secure hen house and into the fenced off run, one of our older cockerels went missing.

His name is Big Red. We have no idea if he was taken by a python, a bird of prey or he scaled the hen house roof and made a break from the run.

All of us are upset. We have only had him for a week. It was only his second time out in the run. He and his six friends were kept in the L-shaped section of the hen house for six days before we let them out into the run with our original seven chickens. He was happy there.

You can see how secure the chicken house is - a double layer of wire.

From the first time we bought him home I knew he was special. He was attentive and kind and less fearful than the other teenagers. 

He was a Rhode Island Red x Barnevelder. He got along well with everybody.

Big Red is on the Right

We looked for him all day yesterday and he never came home. This morning there is still no trace of him.  I feel so guilty and sick with worry. 

And then there is still the mystery. What happened to Big Red?

A Peep at our New Peeps

Finally the time was right to get ourselves some baby chickens (and some pullets - but more on those later). Springtime is a good time to buy day old chicks as the weather is warming up.

So I put together a nursery made from an old crate. It is furnished with:

• A ceramic heater with a clamp (will not blow a fuse or keep them awake with light),
• A small water container (one that they cannot drown in),

and 

• A second hand container for the chicken crumble.

But already some of the older chickens, with wing feathers, are able to hop up and out of the crate - YIKES! - so I have made a makeshift lid.

Meet the Peeps

Currently they have only last names - all Presidential - but the kids have little nicknames for them already - Goldie, Lucy, Loveheart etc.

Aren't they all so individual? I have never had baby chicks before in my life. I have been missing out.