This has not been a good week for my chickens!
A few hours ago I noticed Betsy was not with the others. Since she tends to roam off on her own some, I went a-lookin' for her. There were no signs either of her or of foul play, but my dog was not happy with something I could not see in the juniper, so I rounded up the others, locked them safely away, and took a walk down the road. I soon came across a nice big red fox that was probably protecting his newborn cubs and needs to feed his family too.
A couple of hours later I found the feathers, Betsy's feathers. My dog did me the service of finding her carcass. I must have scared the fox off the first time I went out so he left me her body to deal with.
My once upon a time flock of fifteen is down to only five, and their free range time has now been curtailed to only those times I can be out there with them. They have a large indoor space, an extravagantly large protected run, and an even larger enclosed yard of their own for the other times, so no feeling sorry for my chickens please. Me though. Me you can feel a bit sorry for! I'm very sad losing two of them in one week.
Betsy and I became quite close a few weeks ago when she had injured herself somehow, and here is a post I made about that. https://steemit.com/chickens/@owasco/betsy-in-rehab
I'm going to miss her! And her many big fat brown eggs.
