897 words
We had our first chicken massacre last week. An unknown predator (likely a raccoon) got into the coop through a gap where two sections of roof meet and killed nine of our flock. The person opening the coop on the morning after the event was greeted with the sight of nine headless and upper torso-less pullets, most of which had been raised from the age of one day old. The loss is great; we had anticipated that these chicks would form the foundation of next season’s group of egg layers. Instead, they have been dispatched back to the dust . . . (more…)