And Then There Were Three

The week after Easter I brought home eight cute fuzzy little baby chicks.  The kids were so excited!  Emily had been wanting chickens forever, and Ryan and Abigail loved the idea of having a new pet.  I bought a water trough to put them while they were little.  The man at the store assured me they would be happy in the water trough for a few months which made me very happy because I knew it would take a few months to get their coop built.  Each child chose a baby chick to name and have as their own.  Emily got four since she wanted chickens the most.

Ryan with his chick chickadee

Abigail with Cheeka

Justin with Billy Bob Joe Junior James IV

Tyson with Mahonri-Moriancumer

I don't have a picture of Emily with hers, but their names are Daisy, Buttercup, Chirp, and Tubaloth.

Emily's are somewhere in here.

Everyone was really enjoying the little baby chicks.  I loved being able to look out the window and see how they were doing each day.  After about two weeks they really started to grow, and by week three they were no longer cute and fluffy, they were starting to get feathers.  Not only were they getting feathers, but they were learning to fly.  One day when I came home from helping out at the school all of the baby chicks were out on the patio exploring.  I put them back in and they happily went and began eating and drinking.  They started getting out and exploring and coming back in and it didn't bother me because they really didn't dare go to far.  When I got home from picking the kids up one day one of the baby chicks was gone.  Everyone searched all over the yard, but it was nowhere to be found.  We decided we better make a make-shift chicken coop until I had time this summer to build a real one so we moved the play house to the dirt, cut out a little opening and built a little chicken run.  This seemed to be working well.  The chickens made it through a storm with no problem and I was beginning to think maybe we didn't even need to build a stronger coop.  Two days ago we went out and four of our chickens were gone.  After more investigating the children discovered they hadn't escaped, but had been attacked and eaten by something.  We are not sure what got them, but they are no longer with us. There is no sign of a break-in, no footprints, but lots of body parts.  There were some tears shed and a burial and more work on our make shift coop.  We will build a more secure one once school gets out and we have some time, and then we will get more chickens.  For now we have Mahonri-Moriancumer, Tubaloth, and Buttercup.