Well, summer is rounding the corner into fall and I will be the first to say “Hallelujah!” It’s been a hot, tiring summer for me and I really can’t point to anything specific but I just have a lot less pep in my step most days. My garden has been motivating with lots of successes and lots of lessons learned for sure. I’m sure I’ll write a post about this sometime in October because it’s always valuable to look back and assess what was worth the effort and what wasn’t. It’s funny how things can go 80-90% right but that 10-20% that didn’t really nags at me. Gotta learn from it and move on. As they say “Can’t win ‘em all.”
One of the successes throughout the last few months has been my chickens. Oh how I enjoy watching and listening to them. The chicks I got back on April 19 are now starting to lay eggs and they are far from being little fluffballs anymore. Just a week ago I would have been proud to say all are alive and well but we recently had some jail breaks. Each evening when I go to lock the coop I always do a head count. On Thursday, one of my browns was missing. Couldn’t find her anywhere and spent about 45 minutes looking in the dark with my head lamp. I eventually gave up and went to bed with a pit in my stomach. Thankfully, she was out pecking around on the wood pile the next morning and I was so relieved. Then, on Saturday evening one of my dominiques/barred rocks (still can’t tell the difference) was missing. Again, I spent about 30 minutes searching the yard and nearby low branches in case she was already perching but no luck. And sadly she was nowhere to be found the next morning either. Still haven’t found a trace of her which seems odd. But I didn’t want this to become a pattern with the chickens getting bolder and bolder so I asked Cactus to put up some higher mesh fencing which I hope helps.
If you have chickens, how do you keep them secure during the day? I want them to be as free range as possible but they have to be safe.
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