Losing and Adding Chickens

Last week was a sad week on our little homestead. We had a lot of wind early in the week and a board fell over on one of the chickens. It didn't make it. That night, we forgot to close the door to the coop and a cat or two attacked the flock. I heard the noise a little after 3 am and went running.
When we got out there, everyone had scattered. The ducks and 2 of the chickens were running around like crazy, one of the girls was stuck on top of the fence, and two of the the others were hiding in different spots. I did see what I thought was a chicken in our neighbor's yard, but by the time I got the girl that had been on the fence out of the alley, I couldn't find it. David walked the block in case someone had just run away, but couldn't find anyone. We felt awful. How we could be so stupid as to forget to close the coop when we know there are lots of stray cats in the neighborhood is beyond me. It happened, I cried, I had horrible dreams, I cried a little more, and I moved on.

You may remember that we had a lot more chickens earlier this summer, but we had our share of problems and learning experiences. We learned that a straight run of chickens is likely to have a lot more boys in it and if you don't want a bunch of boys, spend the extra for just girls. We also learned that there are some preventative treatments you should give chickens that we were never told about. I read a book and talked to lots of people, but no one ever mentioned the need to deworm at regular intervals when they are young. Lesson learned and between those two learning experiences we were down to 8 chickens before the wind blew and the cats attacked.

After a short grieving period we decided to look for some new friends to join the flock. (Craigslist is great for this sort of thing) We found a farm about 15 minutes from our house that has all purebred Buff Orpingtons and they were selling some of their birds. Even though I suggested three to five new hens, David came home with eight. Sigh. The good news is that they are already laying, but are still in their first year of life, so we should get at least a couple good years with them. I've been so excited to check on everyone each day and gather the new eggs. If you follow me on instagram, you've probably seen several egg posts and those have all been from the new ladies. I am excitedly waiting for our sex-link Allison to start laying. Seriously, it could be any day now!

How fresh are your eggs?