Francine is a smaller light Brahma (on the right) that is now just over a year old. last summer (2008) she was five months old and had established her place as alpha queen of my flock of five. the other girls were: Edith (Plymouth barred rock), Lucy (Rhode island red), belle (ameraucana), and dolly (buff orpington)-all the same age. i got these five girls as chicks for my 16th birthday last year. and have loved and spoiled them to pieces over the last five months of their life. so this story takes place in the beginning of august, and my family and i were getting ready to leave for Hawaii on one morning. and when we leave for trips, i have a neighborhood girl take care of my chickens. but during the morning of of getting ready to leave for Hawaii, i decided to let the girls out of their run into my backyard around 7:30 am, since i knew they probably wouldn't be let out the rest of the day-which makes them anxious and loud.
as a side note, my family shares a large backyard with our cousins. so there are no fences in between our houses. so when i let my girls out into our backyard, they tend to wander to my cousins' side of the yard-which isn't good.because it isn't as protected over there. so I'll usually check on the girls every 10 minutes to shoe them back to our side of the yard.
so, after i let them out, i went inside for about 5 minutes, and when i came out to look for my chickens they were nowhere to be found. i decided that they wandered to my cousins side of the yard and started walking over there when i saw gray and white feathers all over my cousins side of the yard. i ran over there screaming for my girls. i found Francine with missing feathers all over her, and blood dripping down her sides. i picked her up and ran to my house, screaming for my parents, my mom wrapped Francine in a towel to help not go into shock. then i searched all over the yard for the rest of the girls. i found Lucy, Belle, and Edith in random places and put them in their run. but i couldn't find dolly. i searched and called for her all around our house and yard. i found a pile of her yellow feathers in our next door neighbor's driveway. then every 20 or more feet were a trail of her yellow feathers here and there. so me and my dad followed the trail through our other neighbor's backyard and over a 10' high fence to a plant nursery by our neighborhood.
now remember we were getting ready to drive to LA airport to leave for Hawaii and this all happened less than an hour before we had to leave.
so after looking for dolly for 20 minutes, and not finding any other traces of feathers past the nursery, we went back to our house. my mom told us she called our friends who are experienced with chickens and they were going to be at our house in 15 minutes-one really knows who their friends are if they are willing to drive to your house at 7:30 am and help out your pet chicken.
while waiting for our friends to come, my aunt and neighbors came out to comfort me because i was going hysterical. i was trying to keep Francine from going into shock and keeping her warm while not crying and embarrassing myself-which was really hard. though my chickens are our producers for eggs, they are more a beloved pet that i have come to love.
so our friends got to our house, and said they would take Francine to island seed and feed (a garden/farm/pet store) and have our chicken expert/ unofficial poultry vet take a look at her, and also care for her while we were gone. i was, and still am, very thankful that i am able to rely on such good friends to help me in a time of need. they took care of Francine for two weeks, and took her to the chicken expert multiple times while we were gone. so yes, Francine did survive. she got a punctured lung, but had it stitched up-which healed very quickly. but it took months before her feathers grew back, and today she has permanent bald spots on her rear and sides-though she doesn't look horrible. but i was thinking about showing her before the accident happened. and i believe it stunted her growth because Brahmas are supposed to be very big and she is barely bigger than my RIR. and i have come to the conclusion that raccoons or a fox were the culprits that took dolly and wounded Francine. but I'm not a raccoon hater now, this is just a totally natural part of life that we have to accept. this is what carnivores know and are programmed to do-capture and kill for food.
the reason i think the raccoons/fox were able to catch dolly and Francine was 1) because they were the most visible-yellow and white color, 2) they are very friendly and curious girls whose flight instincts have been dulled, and 3) are very territorial and could have even tried to confront the raccoons/fox, and 4) because since francine is the alpha hen, she probably tried to protect the rest of the girls and would have sacrificed herself doing it.
so when we got back home from Hawaii, i had to keep Francine in a separate cage for just over a week, because while she was away and dolly dead, the rest of the girls had to establish a new pecking order. so Francine had to "fight out" who-is-boss-over-who with the other girls (but not until she was strong and healed enough).
so i guess the moral of the story is to have fencing if you want to keep your girls a bit safer, and to cherish them while you have them-or just anything. this was our third pet that died at five months old. though don't feel bad, because we, as temporary living beings on this earth, have to accept the fact that nothing lasts forever and sometimes things don't last as long as they should, or as long as we want them to. its easier to accept death by looking at it this way, and one day we will all be reunited again.
here is a picture of dolly, around four months old. (on the left).
so, after i let them out, i went inside for about 5 minutes, and when i came out to look for my chickens they were nowhere to be found. i decided that they wandered to my cousins side of the yard and started walking over there when i saw gray and white feathers all over my cousins side of the yard. i ran over there screaming for my girls. i found Francine with missing feathers all over her, and blood dripping down her sides. i picked her up and ran to my house, screaming for my parents, my mom wrapped Francine in a towel to help not go into shock. then i searched all over the yard for the rest of the girls. i found Lucy, Belle, and Edith in random places and put them in their run. but i couldn't find dolly. i searched and called for her all around our house and yard. i found a pile of her yellow feathers in our next door neighbor's driveway. then every 20 or more feet were a trail of her yellow feathers here and there. so me and my dad followed the trail through our other neighbor's backyard and over a 10' high fence to a plant nursery by our neighborhood.
now remember we were getting ready to drive to LA airport to leave for Hawaii and this all happened less than an hour before we had to leave.
so after looking for dolly for 20 minutes, and not finding any other traces of feathers past the nursery, we went back to our house. my mom told us she called our friends who are experienced with chickens and they were going to be at our house in 15 minutes-one really knows who their friends are if they are willing to drive to your house at 7:30 am and help out your pet chicken.
while waiting for our friends to come, my aunt and neighbors came out to comfort me because i was going hysterical. i was trying to keep Francine from going into shock and keeping her warm while not crying and embarrassing myself-which was really hard. though my chickens are our producers for eggs, they are more a beloved pet that i have come to love.
so our friends got to our house, and said they would take Francine to island seed and feed (a garden/farm/pet store) and have our chicken expert/ unofficial poultry vet take a look at her, and also care for her while we were gone. i was, and still am, very thankful that i am able to rely on such good friends to help me in a time of need. they took care of Francine for two weeks, and took her to the chicken expert multiple times while we were gone. so yes, Francine did survive. she got a punctured lung, but had it stitched up-which healed very quickly. but it took months before her feathers grew back, and today she has permanent bald spots on her rear and sides-though she doesn't look horrible. but i was thinking about showing her before the accident happened. and i believe it stunted her growth because Brahmas are supposed to be very big and she is barely bigger than my RIR. and i have come to the conclusion that raccoons or a fox were the culprits that took dolly and wounded Francine. but I'm not a raccoon hater now, this is just a totally natural part of life that we have to accept. this is what carnivores know and are programmed to do-capture and kill for food.
the reason i think the raccoons/fox were able to catch dolly and Francine was 1) because they were the most visible-yellow and white color, 2) they are very friendly and curious girls whose flight instincts have been dulled, and 3) are very territorial and could have even tried to confront the raccoons/fox, and 4) because since francine is the alpha hen, she probably tried to protect the rest of the girls and would have sacrificed herself doing it.
so when we got back home from Hawaii, i had to keep Francine in a separate cage for just over a week, because while she was away and dolly dead, the rest of the girls had to establish a new pecking order. so Francine had to "fight out" who-is-boss-over-who with the other girls (but not until she was strong and healed enough).
so i guess the moral of the story is to have fencing if you want to keep your girls a bit safer, and to cherish them while you have them-or just anything. this was our third pet that died at five months old. though don't feel bad, because we, as temporary living beings on this earth, have to accept the fact that nothing lasts forever and sometimes things don't last as long as they should, or as long as we want them to. its easier to accept death by looking at it this way, and one day we will all be reunited again.
here is a picture of dolly, around four months old. (on the left).
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