Sad for Sandy

I have some sad news....


Last weekend, we lost our prized hen, Sandy. She was our curious and fearless hen, always interested in what we were doing and not afraid to come and peck at us. We let the hens out early Sunday morning to roam around the yard. By the evening, they had made their way across the creek to the side where the house is (the coop is across the creek from the house...didn't think I wanted them to get too close to the house and start roosting on the porch!). They were heading to the back of the lot, toward the woods and I didn't want them to go far, so I turned the hose on them to try to get them to go back across the creek. Well this was a stupid idea. It just got them in a fuss. We decided to just let them roam, figuring that they'd make their way back to the coop as night approached. I went in the house to tend to some other chores and fix dinner. When Jason went to close the door on the coop, he said the red hen was missing. On another occasion, we had a hen outside the coop overnight and she did just fine, so I didn't think too much of it. But the next morning Sandy was still missing. We combed the yard for any evidence of a fight or remains (yucky) but found nothing. I feel so guilty for not getting those hens back across the creek. If I had, maybe she'd still be with us today. We still don't know what happened to her. We are surrounded by cow pastures and woods, but I just don't think she would have roamed that far on her own. A co-worker who also has chickens told me when we first got ours to be prepared for some losses. I just didn't think anything would happen to Sandy, our favorite little hen.

On another note, Mom was here over the Memorial Day weekend! We did the really important mother/daughter things, like sharing margaritas and daquiris while gardening. She helped me pick out new shrubs at Lowe's and flowers from the local gardening store, then we came home, made a batch of daquiris and got to work planting! Thanks to her, the yard looks much better! I'll post some pics this weekend to prove I haven't killed anything yet!! We also spied on the chickens, discovering it takes the white hen about 30 minutes to lay one egg. It is quite relaxing to watch them roam the yard and run around looking for bugs to eat. They are so comical! The rooster has gotten more agressive toward us. I guess he is just protecting his women though!