And then there were none......

Over a month ago, I was piddling around the barn and noticed a few loose feathers. I didn't think anything of it until my roosters (Red and Goldie) weren't anywhere to be found. At first I thought perhaps they were out picking in the corn field just east of the farm. But they never came back...and I never saw them again.

HoHen continued her quest of sitting on a rotten egg in hopes that it would hatch. She spent weeks sitting on that egg until one day I heard her causing such a commotion in the hay loft. I went up to see what was wrong and she was frantically running around the loft squawking her head off. I'm thinking that she had finally realized her "boys" were gone.

Due to all the worrying I had done that she wasn't eating or drinking anything as a result of sitting on the rotten egg, I thought I would cease the moment and get rid of the rotten egg. That was definitely NOT a good idea. The second I got close to her prize egg, I swear everything on her extended to ten times its size! She came at me with such a vengeance, I ran screaming "Okay! Okay! I won't bother your rotten egg!"

From that point on, she started coming out of the loft more frequently. It was sad to see her by herself, but she wasn't alone for very long. Last week I went to the barn only to find a fury of feathers spread from one end of the barn to the other. HoHen was gone...for good.

Apparently, judging by the tracks I found around the barn and the mess inside the barn, there are a few coons that decided to prey upon my family of chickens.

It seems so silly that I could get so attached to some stupid chickens, but I did.

So I now have a new goal and wonder how fried coon will taste. :-)

Posted in loving memory of Big Red, HoHen, and Goldie.