Ms Henny Penny died through the night of unknown causes, one chick was also dead and half eaten by ants, two chicks are missing in action and we have three left which we will attempt to hand raise. We cannot see any sign of predators or snakes so really do not know what happened - it was very upsetting for Gryffen this morning who found them. We have a cage for the chicks and will be setting up a light for warmth for tonight (it is quite hot enough today for them even in the house!). They are living in our bathroom at the moment ;-) We are also looking at moving where we have the chickens to a shadier spot closer to the house - it is also flatter, has softer ground for scratching and less rocks! We had two other hens who have injured themselves, one also died this morning while we were up catching the chicks - not very pleasant. So far the other one is okay although limping (she has broken a toe).
We plan to have two chicken runs with houses and a third smaller pen for 'broody' hens to hopefully raise more chicks. T feels because the ones we have left are about 3 days old they have a reasonable chance of surviving. The nice thing will be I will be able to watch them from the dining room and kitchen ;-) Being the 'city slicker' that I am, I have lots of reading and learning to do (I haven't raised chickens before), luckily my husband was raised on the land so at least he has a clue! LOL
Will keep you posted on chick progress!
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