Today Lee , the last remaining chicken from last year managed to pry up the bottom of the nesting box and get out of her house so the 3 new chicks that have been living in our house have been moved in and Lee is back patrolling the area, causing mayhem already.
What a strange bird she is. Her sisters were attacked and killed by 2 stray hunting dogs that managed to find their way up here and sadly just left them in the yard, dead.
All the other chickens in past years have disappeared, hopefully to predators from the air or the surrounding woods, and that is okay as at least something had a good meal. In the middle of winter we had to bury the chickens and buy top soil so they could be underground until spring.
In a few days I will let the new chicks out of the house and into the short run so they can meet. Then we will see what happens next.
Learning how to live naturally, dependent on ourselves and our land as much as possible, is such a learning experience as intervention from the world keeps changing everything. In the end I am grateful for it all.