The Eggville Massacre!

We planned a vacation at the New Jersey Shore for last week. Kevin spent all his free time, before the vacation, securing the chicken coop and the surrounding area. We left on Sunday morning and asked Kevin's dad to come and check on the chickens during the week we were to be away.

Tuesday afternoon, we received a phone call from Kevin's dad, which I was certain was just his idea of a joke. He said that he just got to our house and all of the chickens are DEAD! Kevin could not believe his ears! I got the chills! We could not imagine that our beloved flock of 20-something chickens was slaughtered in just a few days.

Long story short...turns out there was a little corner of the fence, which was not as secure as we thought. Something, probably a fox, got into the coop and killed all the hens.

Kevin asked his dad to take the dead chickens out of the coop, so not to spread any kind of disease. When we got home, Kevin spent the whole day fixing anything that looked like it could be a way in for any predators. And then...are you ready for this? He found a woman through Craigslist, who has a chicken farm, and bought 40-something chickens from her! Unreal, my husband, I tell ya! We don't know if the new chickens are hens or roosters, although some are already displaying rooster-like qualities...like fighting for example. The flock will probably get a lot smaller, once we find out who the real roosters are.

So that's that, ladies and gentlemen....our new flock is here, and hopefully will stay for a lot longer than the last one! It's weird...the other chickens felt a lot more like family than these do, at least right now. Hopefully we will get to know them better, and it will feel different....