Expanding the Flock

Meet Muffin II, and Rocky, the newest additions to our flock. These sweet chicks will grow up to be gorgeous Americauna hens - the heritage breed with funky ear feathers that lay green-blue eggs. Sadly our original Muffin, the Columbian Wyandotte, met her untimely death by a dog that was off leash and managed to bust through our chicken fence in the backyard. RIP Muffin. It was a sad day that has left me a bit shaken about having the birds loose in the backyard -- not to mention what to do about people who seem to think it is ok to let their dogs run around in other people's yards.

Before we did our massive landscaping job at the house last summer, strange dogs in our yard were a regular occurrence. I have no idea why dog owners think this is ok - we just assumed that because we didn't have a "landscaped" yard that our property lines may not have been "clearly defined". As a parent, I would never let my kids play in someone else's yard, yet dog owners think this is fine. Go figure.

Since we landscaped, the dogs have not been an issue. In fact, we didn't even have a chicken fence until quite recently. We just let the chickens go wherever they wanted, which wasn't very far, and noone seemed to be bothered about them, either dog or human. We have had these delightful birds outside loose now for 10 months, no problems. In fact, my favorite thing about having them out is the looks they get when people passing by realize what they are. You cannot help but smile when you see them so happy clucking away in the yard. Certainly it surprises people, and many actually stop, ask questions, want to see the coop and learn what kind of birds they are. I love it.

But here I was with this dead chicken, no idea what to do with it, and how to possibly protect the remaining two birds from future attacks like this one. I couldn’t help but wonder, was Muffin's demise inevitable? Were we lucky this hadn't happened sooner? Will it happen again and should we be prepared to accept that this kind of thing happens to our pets? Or was this a freak accident and it might not happen again? I don't know. Time will tell I guess.

Anyways, we have built a proper fence now, so we will see. For the time being, Muffin II and Rocky are in the living room, under their lamp, making lots of noise (I don't remember the first lot being this noisy!!). I look forward to introducing them to Ganesh and Eggbert. That will be interesting!