Heart Sick

This morning (Thursday)finds me heart sick. It started as a normal morning for me. Up at five, the coffee timer started my morning brew so the first cup would be ready by the time I got down stairs. I had a shower, checked my email. I fed the horses and went out to the chicken yard. There was a sickening feeling as I approached the chicken yard. It looked as though there had been a massive pillow fight; feathers everywhere. My flock of thirteen had been reduced to eight.

Raccoons ripped through the bottom of the fence. It’s not like I didn’t anticipate this because when I fenced in the yard I ran an extra fencing flat along the ground where grass grows over it to prevent something from digging their way in. It was brute force that detached the ground fence from the vertical fence.

So to all my egg customers I now have only four layers and one of them is seriously injured. The other four chicks will not be old enough to lay until the fall. Today I will be digging up the entire perimeter of the yard and burying corrugated metal roofing panels.

They killed one Aricona, both Silver Laced Wyondottes and two Barred Rocks. I’m just heart sick.