Beginning to Feel Better

After I posted about losing The Girls last night, the neighbor that owns the dog came over to talk to The Man of the House.  He apologized several times.  He used to have chickens himself, so he understood how it feels to lose one or more. 

He paid us for the lost birds.  And is going to put in invisible fencing to keep his dog in the yard.  He even said if we wanted to try to call him when we were going to let them out to free roam for a while he will put her up in the house; because he knows once a dog has had the sport of getting a chicken it will keep coming back for more.  I suppose it was the best possible ending to a difficult situation. 

The Man of the House also spoke with our "chicken supplier" today, and we are going to be able to get 3 more birds of the same age at a reasonable cost.  I hope they are as fun to watch and lay as well as the ones we lost.

The last four eggs produced by the girls.

Today Was NOT A Good Day

We lost three of The Girls today.

Due to legal reasons, I can not say the neighbor's dog killed them, because I did not actually see her kill any chickens.  What I can tell you is this:

*At about 2:15 I gathered eggs and let The Girls out to free-roam for the afternoon.  I was excited because there were four eggs today.

*Around 3:45 I heard one of The Girls raising a fuss, so went out to check on them.  At that point I found one dead on the edge of the yard.  Next to the wooded lot between our house and the neighbor's house.  I also heard neighbor's dog running through the woods back toward her house.

*I walked up to the road, where I found a large quantity of white feathers along the edge of the wooded lot.

*Two of my chickens were laying - dead - in their yard.

*Two of my Dominiques were hiding in the bushes by the house terrified.  It took me, The Princess, and The Little Man a good while to get them back in the coop.  The remaining Americauna must have found herself a very good hidey hole.  I was convinced she was dead also, but she came home sometime later.

*While trying to get the two chickens I could find at the time into the coop.  I witnessed neighbor's dog chasing one of The Girls in my yard.

I am so sad.  And angry.  I did call Animal Enforcement.  They can't do anything legally because there were no witnesses to how the chickens were killed. 

And (in the immortal words of Forrest Gump) that's all I have to say about that.

R.I.P - Svetlana and Medusa.  They were my two best layers and they will be missed.  I'm still not sure if the deceased Dominique is Miss Muffett or Amelia.

A Two-fer!!

Remember the giant of an egg I collected from the girls a couple of weeks ago?  It was finally cracked and cooked.  And it was a 2 yolk bonus!

One Tough Bird

These are the eggs I gathered from The Girls yesterday:

As you can see, one is significantly larger than the other.  For reference - the smaller egg is on the small side.  About a small to medium sized commercial egg.  While the larger one... well...  it's big!  I think I have an overachiever on my hands! HA! 

And yes - you can imagine the jokes that have breezed through the family regarding the state of the chicken which laid the egg in question.

Which Came First, The Chicken or the Egg

In our house, the chickens came first. 

But now we have an egg! Our very first one!!  I'm pretty sure our pioneer layer is Medusa as she was still standing on the edge of the nesting box when I went out to check on the Girls.  I am so excited, I could just pop!