lost forest

A few weeks ago a fox took another of our chickens. This time I actually saw the fox coming out of the woods in broad daylight, right at the edge of our driveway, on the tails of two chickens who made it back safely. I yelled and it turned around reluctantly, but managed to find Tira (short for Tiramisu, the dessert, but I like Cale’s spelling better – see pic below) further out in the woods.

Of our original six chicks, two were Isa Browns, both taken by a fox (not sure if it was the same fox). The first one we lost earlier in the summer, and while it was upsetting, it was nowhere near as sad as losing Tira, probably because she was younger, hadn’t started laying eggs, and we weren’t as attached to her. We hadn’t even named her yet because we couldn’t tell the difference between the two Isas.

The two rust & white colored chicks were our Isa Browns.

Tira was our first egg layer and had gotten to the point of reliably laying a large brown egg every morning between 8:30 and 9:00. She was also very curious. For most of the summer Steve had mitre saw set up in the garage for various projects and we could not keep her from jumping up there. She was obsessed. Unfortunately we don’t have a good picture of this. Eventually he put a towel up there and we thought maybe she’d lay an egg there.

Tira’s first egg, about 2 weeks earlier than we expected, so we didn’t have a nest box set up in the coop yet.

We actually don’t have a recent picture of her, only this one with the other chickens that Natalie took.

Tira is on the right.

The day it happened was shortly after my surgery, so I couldn’t go walking through the woods to look for her and Steve was on his way back from up north. We weren’t sure if she was hiding somewhere really good, but we suspected she was gone. He did find a clump of feathers and lots of tears were shed.

Shortly after, I looked out the window to see everyone watching (and guarding) the other chickens out front. I didn’t open the door because I didn’t want them to know I was taking this picture.

The other chickens often hang out in the Front Circle, as we call it.

Later that night, Cale must have still been thinking about it, because he had been upstairs drawing without us knowing about it. He came down to show us this (pretty much the reason for this whole post):

I adore everything about this, especially Cale’s spelling of Tira’s name.

Our chickens are a little over 10 weeks old now. They should start laying at anywhere from 18-24 weeks, so we are hoping for eggs sometime toward the middle to end of August.

They seem to be doing well and are checking out everything around the house. They are free range during the day so they pretty much go where they want. We let them out of their coop/run (A-frame style, closed in on top with ramp going down to open chicken wire enclosed area below) in the morning and they go back automatically in the evening and we shut the door when the are all in. They apparently like all the places we don’t necessarily want them to go (because they constantly poop everywhere), like the garage, deck, and front porch. They have found nice hiding spots under the deck and under plants when it’s raining or too hot. They come right up to the front door which is all glass and peek in, as well as the sliding door on the deck. They have even “knocked” on the door from the garage to the house. They are super curious and so hilarious to watch and listen to, especially when one is separated from the others.

This is from when we first moved them from the crate in the garage to their coop.

Inside top level of coop when we first put them out there. They were so small then compared to now. Now they just go up there to sleep at night.

Roosting in garage on saw horses which we’ve had out for many recent projects. (It was cold the night before so I had brought the flowers in.)

Snuggled on a deck stair. The dark one is asleep with her eyes closed.

Air conditioner wiring or roost bar?

Checking out the front porch (and corn hole boards).

We’ve been talking about getting chickens for a few years and finally did it. We’ve had them for two weeks now and they have already grown like crazy. They are in a large wooden crate in our garage staying warm.

We got 6 pullets (young hens) of good egg-laying breeds (2 each of Rhode Island Red, Buff Orpington, and Isa Brown).

We’re “babysitting” two additional Rhode Island Reds for our neighbor until they are ready to go out to the real world.

They look noticeably larger to me now. I love the feather markings of the Rhode Island Reds. Hopefully they will keep them, though most pictures I’ve looked up of the grown hens are more solid color. We shall see…