Bad news on the chicken front ...

Against my better judgement, we've been letting the chickens out at the same time we used to during the summer, despite the fact that the light is much more like dawn, ergo, perfect for coyotes. Thursday morning, at about 8:30, I'm sitting in the front room of the house, and a large, dark brown coyote goes by, chasing a chicken! I mean, right out in front of the house! I go screaming out of the house, and it runs off and I go in, put on shoes and go out and round up as many chickens as I can find. I find about 18 chickens, (of the 27 we are supposed to have) and the silly Barred Rock Rooster will NOT go into the pen. He's too big and a bit aggressive to pick up, so when I go off to work at noon, I tell him he's on his own.

The upshot is that we now have 23 chickens. And the coyotes got one of the babies. The Rooster survived, as I think the coyotes didn't come back during the day. That morning, the chickens has been out less than a half hour, so I guess they must have come in a pack. Oh, and there's one chicken who has bit marks on her back, so I guess when I came out, what ever coyote had her ran off. She looks pretty rough, but I think she'll be OK. Sadly, the chicken that survived the dog attack didn't survive the coyotes. She just wasn't able to fly.

It's too bad we don't have a gun, as I would cheerfully shoot a coyote.

On uplifting news ...

Wrestling season starts for Paul shortly; I will have photos. I hope his MMA training transfers over as well as I think it will.