My family doesn't tend to fare well in the luck aspect of life. Considering the devastation in Haiti and other parts of the world we should not feel too bad for ourselves, but man oh man does that get hard sometimes.
I just got off the phone with a rather upset mother. It seems that an owl pried the precariously mounted screen off the window that I put on the chicken coop, and got in. By the time my dad went to shut them in for the night, the owl had killed 61 of our hens. Sadly, the bird lost its life instead of getting to enjoy the free buffet it thought it had found. It had to die though, or it would have been back over and over.
I'm sure as hell not looking forward to the trip out there tomorrow, and learning which of my favorite hens are gone...
So this sets the fresh egg business back by over 1/3, at least, until no sooner than next fall. It might actually put the operation back longer than that, since it is likely to mean the need for a new building and pen. Money is beginning to grow very tight, so this may not be possible. It might turn out to be the straw that broke the camel's back too, if it puts my dad into a negative outlook as is very possible.
I guess we'll have to see...
3 years ago
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4 comments:
61???? Holy cow I had no idea they would do that, I thought they'd just grab one and fly away with it! I'm so sorry, that's very bad news. Goods luck to your folks starting over....
I had no clue an owl could be so destructive! I feel so lucky to have a dog patrolling around our chicken tractors.
I'm so sorry to hear about this. Like your other comments, I also was unaware of how much damage an owl can do.
Thanks for the comments. I appreciate the concern a lot.
I think I am going to do another short post as there is a bit more to the story.
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