Golden doodles kill chickens (with dead chicken pics)

Indy, our 5 month Goldendoodle who by the way just completed puppy training, killed Corny tonight. 

So that’s great. 

The chicks are getting pretty big so Mama Weasley has been letting them roam on their own more and more. I thought that they had gotten too large for Indy to take out so I let him outside without supervision. 

When I went to close the coop tonight, Corny was missing. A hawk was circling and cawing over head so I thought that got her. Then on my way back to the house I found Corny. Or most of her. She really looked pretty similar to a grocery store bought chicken  pre-oven. plucked clean but missing head and feet. 

Mat and I were trying to look up what could have done that when Indy started the doggy vomit song. I ran to get a bowl (too late) and came back to this

Mat has a theory that the hawk killed Corny and then was interrupted by Indy. Indy saw the dead chicken and just ate the head. 

In other news: Another injured animal today was Wasabi. 

Maybe the hawk had tried to get him?  Not sure. He does play with Indy a lot, but I don’t think Indy would have hurt him.  I know Wasabi could really put Indy in his place quickly with those claws. 

We lost a Weasley

Non-mama Weasley is officially gone.  Dead to a predator that got her during the day!  

And Hickety lost her tail feathers and got an injured wing!

Mat went hunting for the predator and he saw what may have been a bobcat!  It was dusk and it started hissing at Wasabi (at Mats ankles) from about ten feet up in the woods.  Mat thinks he scared it off, we’ve seen nothing on the game camera, and we haven’t lost a chicken since. 

On the bright side, the youngens are doing well. 

From left to right: Corny, Zuchinni, and uncle Joe. 

Now Mama Weasley is officially the only Weasley. Sad 😢 

Two buff orpingtons and a barnyard mix

Based on the appearance at this point, I’m pretty sure that two are buff orpingtons. The scraggly probably isn’t a buff Orpington and may be a rooster.

Uncle Joe (the white specked one)  is the only one who’s eaten out of my hand and he already has the start of a comb. For those who don’t know, in youth cockerels are much friendlier than pullets (young hens). 

We shall see. 

The chicken scare

The other day when I went to close up the coop at night, two of the chickens were missing. Mama Weasley and Black Hen. 

I hoped that they had gone into the woods because I was late closing the coop. The following morning, I let them out and the other two were nowhere to be seen. It was kind of sad watching the chicks run around without a mama protecting them!

Later in the morning I opened the garage to go feed the cats. There they were!  Boy, was Mama Weasley happy!  And the chicks!