Down one more. Lost another!

It's a bad year for chicks on the McNeal city farm.

Barb and Donna were out freeranging with the flock. We went to herd them in and only Donna came back. :-(

We have found no sign of Barb. Her head was healing up nicely, too, and they were beginning to trust me.

Luckily, Donna has become part of the greater flock. She let herself into the coop one evening and it made my heart go out to her. It must be so hard and yet she did it! That a girl! #donnarocks

Another chick attack - 2017

A young lady with a flock nearby was having trouble with her Black Australorp, Mel. She was being relentlessly picked on by the rest of her flock. I agreed to take her in. Indeed, she was in rough shape. Her back was missing quite a few feathers and had a big bald spot; same with the back of her neck.

This seems REALLY stupid now but I put her in with Barb and Donna in their introduction to the rest of the flock home.

Once again, when I got home from work, it was chaos. Barb and Donna were bleeding on the top of their heads and Donna looked like she was going to lose an eye. Mel was still in the enclosure. So, did Barb and Donna get out, then something got them? Or was Mel picking on them? I'll never know.

In any event, I cleaned Barb and Donna's wounds and slathered them with antibiotic ointment. They've healed up nicely, though Donna will probably never grow feathers on the top of her head.

Mel, in the meantime, is a very nice hen who runs out to greet me.

So I don't get it? Is Mel the perpetrator? Or the nice hen she appears to be?

Lost yet another

On the second day the three chicks were outside, there was a jailbreak. When I got home to two Egyptian Fayoumis, Barb and Donna, were running around panicking and Linda, the Black Minorca,  was by the back door dead. :-(

Obviously, we're going to have to beef up security.

2017 chicks

I have Frizzles on order again through Houle's, like last year. They are supposed to be in on May 19.

But I saw via Twin Cities Chickens that True Cost Farm had some Egyptian Fayoumis and Black Minorcas available. They were two weeks old, and I got three.

What a difference between day-old and two-week-old chicks, though. These chicks are so flighty. It may be the breed. It may be lack of bonding when they were tiny. Anyways, they're breeds I've never had, so I'm excited to have them. Since they're exotic breeds, I decided to give them plain names.

So, here are Donna, Barb and Linda enjoying their first day in the sun and their first worms.