Friday, July 16, 2010

Farewell Brownie


I'm very sorry for what happened to you. I feel partially responsible, but I really thought that giving you to the neighbour was the best thing for you. I was worried about a coyote getting you in my yard, I really didn't expect that the neighbour's chickens would do that to you. If I knew they were capable of that I would have let you stay here. I'm still not sure how we will tell Kira. She loved you very much and she didn't want to let you go to the neighbours, I convinced her that it was the best thing for you. We will do everything we can to take care of Sandy for you.

2 comments:

Kristin said...

Oh, no, did the other chickens kill her? I have little experience with farm animals. So sorry for your daughter.

Motherhen said...

Yes, they did. Brownie was very good at escaping from my enclosure, and I like to free range my chickens on nice days when we are working in the garden, but she would never stay with the flock and would never go back into the coop at the end of the day. When you introduce new chickens to a flock you need to be very careful or horrible things like this can happen. When I introduce new chickens, I put a dog crate in the middle of the coop floor with the new chicken inside. I put the water container right up against the crate so that all of the chickens have to come close to the new chicken in order to drink. After 2 weeks, I open the door of the crate (usually when I am going to be out in the yard and can keep an eye on things). So far, we've never had a problem, even with 4 roosters in the flock. Most recently, I introduced 14 hens this way, and they are doing great. More info than you probably wanted. lol