Oh no!!!
So sorry Manue and what a shock.
Farewell Piou-piou - you will be missed around the world.
Théo and the chickens des Sauches
- Thread starter ManueB
- Start date
So sorry Manue and what a shock.
Farewell Piou-piou - you will be missed around the world.
Sending some hughs for the loss of Piou-piou too.
If you really have a weasel out there, I would search
for an opening and close it. Weasels do come back.
That's terrible news. I'm so sorry.
- Thread starter
- #3,015
We heard screams at 6.50 just 20 mn short of opening the coopso sorry @ManueB
I imagine it's hard to tell whether it's still there or not. Maybe that's what been spooking the chickens for a while. It's so difficult to spot and catch mustelids.
. Ran down as fast as we could and found the weasel, or marten, still in, and Piou-piou's headless body.We did not succeed killing it, it ran right over my partner's shoulder. We're in the process of securing the door : we discovered the wooden upper panel had moved throughout the years, and forming a hole above which we could not see. We knew the run wasn't safe from a marten but we were absolutely sure the coop was 100% unbreachable.
I can't believe she's gone, it's so sudden. We always thought she wouldn't stand a chance with a predator because she could not fly, and she already survived miraculously a fox almost exactly a year ago, and a hawk.
She was our princess and our heart chicken. It will be so empty without her. I won't be holding to my social media break because I want to post a tribute and maybe speak more about it. Right now we're going through all the what if's, and feeling like we failed her. We take confort knowing she died quickly and had a wonderful last year.
I knew, and you say so too, you didn’t know about any hole. Finding it and fixing it , is all you can do.
Don’t blame yourself. In the wild chickens are prey animals day and night. Therefore these kind of casualties just happen. It’s hard when it happens. But it’s also part/ belongs to having happy chickens. A fort knocks without space to live, to explore and to forage is way more pitiful.
Remember she had joy and gave you joy for as long as she was in your care.
I'm so sorry
My pullet last year was killed in a 150ft x 600ft run. I wouldn't have known what happened to her but the mink was trying to pull her through the fence. Stupid turkeys just watching. The field fence wiggling and turkeys staring is what caught my attention. Way back of the poultry yard 100ft from the creek.
I caught 2 different sizes of male mink, 2 different sizes of male weasels and one female weasels.
I used a repeating rat trap with a live chipmunk. Also caught one of those weasels in same trap without chipmunk when I was trying to catch the chipmunk by the house.
However the last thing I caught in it bent the bars and got out, they are very strong and can squeeze through a hole bigger than half inch.
I have seen people catch small weasels in repeating mouse trap.
- Thread starter
- #3,020
This is going to be a rather depressing post for Christmas 
it happens to be a good time for me to post, as I'm on my own at home. I skipped tonight's dinner with my partner's family since they are at his uncle I don't really appreciate. My own family is coming over tomorrow, and staying overnight. I'm rather glad to have this bit of time alone, and Christmas is like any other day for me.
How the chickens reacted to Piou-piou's killing.
Many of my chickens have already been confronted to predators attacks, but it's the first time a chicken is killed by one.
The fact that it happened in the coop at night is as disturbing for them as it is for us. This was their safe place.
When the killing happened, Piou-piou, Théo and Merle were on their roost with Piou-piou close to the window.
Her body and head were on the other side of the coop's entrance, so she must have gotten down somehow and be killed there. The screams we heard were from Merle. She and Théo were on the floor ; the weasel was on Piou-piou's window, I suppose it had climbed back to get another chicken, or it was trying to get out by the way it came when it heard us.
Apart Chipie who was in the nest just above that roost, all the other chickens were at the back of the coop, on the main roost.
We chased the weasel out and I remained with the chickens until they decided to get off the roost. Théo stayed on the floor, walking around looking totally dazed. I tried once to put him back on his roost and he immediately flew down.
Merle flew on the main roost next to Gaston.
Gaston started making sad soft sounds like he does when something disturbs him. This went on for about ten minutes. I think he knew Piou-piou was dead. Remember she was his first sweetheart and they still had a strong bond, though they very rarely saw one another.
For many of the other chickens, Piou-piou had become a complete stranger. She only roosted at night with them, but they never saw her during the day, since last summer she had been living completely outside the chicken yard. Clearly the less disturbed hens were the ones who didn't have any relationship with her : Alba, Nieva, Lily, Kara, Laure, and Lulu. Mélisse and Annette were a bit more upset as they spent time with her in the garden, especially Mélisse, who hanged out with Théo's team for a few months before they rejected her ; Léa was really shocked.
It took them a very long time to come off the roost ; they waited until it was complete day light, so that's about half an hour later than usual
During the day it seems most of the chickens got pretty quickly over the fact that she wasn't there anymore, except for Théo and Merle. Since Merle had begun coming out and laying again, the three of them were spending most of the day together, and this was how they did things whenever Merle wasn't broody, so this was a huge change. And they were also the more directly threatened.
Roost time, however, is very difficult. For one thing, understandably, the chickens are really frightened to go in the coop. They are fine hanging there in the morning, but they don't want to go back inside for the night. The hens begin coming in, look everywhere inside the coop, and go out again. One or two climb on the roost then come down again. It doesn't help that the most anxious is Gaston. Once almost all the hens are on the roost and realise he is not coming, they go back down to him in the run. It takes a lot of coaxing and quiet talk to get them in.
The second issue is that naturally Merle and Théo don't want to sleep on their roost at all. They now want to roost at the very opposite, at the back of the coop. I had a system that was more or less working taking Gaston elsewhere while Théo went to roost and hiding Théo from Gaston's sight with panels. This doesn't work anymore. So now not only is Gaston really stressed to go roost but once he is on his roost he has only one idea - to walk across the roost go fight Théo. Then the hens, who were really mean already to one another, are even worse, because Merle and Théo have taken one of the preferred place for the hens that are higher in the pecking order. It's complicated and I try really hard to stay calm so as not to make things more upsetting.
With Piou-piou there was a very fragile balance between both roosters and their team, or let's say a way of making them coexist without killing one another. Her disappearance has broken that balance.
How I'm reacting.
I'm putting that part in a spoiler for two reasons. One, it's gloomy and miserable. Two, it's a bit personal. This thread really helps me keep track of my chicken journey and this is part of it, so it belongs there. But I don't feel comfortable sharing.
it happens to be a good time for me to post, as I'm on my own at home. I skipped tonight's dinner with my partner's family since they are at his uncle I don't really appreciate. My own family is coming over tomorrow, and staying overnight. I'm rather glad to have this bit of time alone, and Christmas is like any other day for me.How the chickens reacted to Piou-piou's killing.
Many of my chickens have already been confronted to predators attacks, but it's the first time a chicken is killed by one.
The fact that it happened in the coop at night is as disturbing for them as it is for us. This was their safe place.
When the killing happened, Piou-piou, Théo and Merle were on their roost with Piou-piou close to the window.
Her body and head were on the other side of the coop's entrance, so she must have gotten down somehow and be killed there. The screams we heard were from Merle. She and Théo were on the floor ; the weasel was on Piou-piou's window, I suppose it had climbed back to get another chicken, or it was trying to get out by the way it came when it heard us.
Apart Chipie who was in the nest just above that roost, all the other chickens were at the back of the coop, on the main roost.
We chased the weasel out and I remained with the chickens until they decided to get off the roost. Théo stayed on the floor, walking around looking totally dazed. I tried once to put him back on his roost and he immediately flew down.
Merle flew on the main roost next to Gaston.
Gaston started making sad soft sounds like he does when something disturbs him. This went on for about ten minutes. I think he knew Piou-piou was dead. Remember she was his first sweetheart and they still had a strong bond, though they very rarely saw one another.
For many of the other chickens, Piou-piou had become a complete stranger. She only roosted at night with them, but they never saw her during the day, since last summer she had been living completely outside the chicken yard. Clearly the less disturbed hens were the ones who didn't have any relationship with her : Alba, Nieva, Lily, Kara, Laure, and Lulu. Mélisse and Annette were a bit more upset as they spent time with her in the garden, especially Mélisse, who hanged out with Théo's team for a few months before they rejected her ; Léa was really shocked.
It took them a very long time to come off the roost ; they waited until it was complete day light, so that's about half an hour later than usual
During the day it seems most of the chickens got pretty quickly over the fact that she wasn't there anymore, except for Théo and Merle. Since Merle had begun coming out and laying again, the three of them were spending most of the day together, and this was how they did things whenever Merle wasn't broody, so this was a huge change. And they were also the more directly threatened.
Roost time, however, is very difficult. For one thing, understandably, the chickens are really frightened to go in the coop. They are fine hanging there in the morning, but they don't want to go back inside for the night. The hens begin coming in, look everywhere inside the coop, and go out again. One or two climb on the roost then come down again. It doesn't help that the most anxious is Gaston. Once almost all the hens are on the roost and realise he is not coming, they go back down to him in the run. It takes a lot of coaxing and quiet talk to get them in.
The second issue is that naturally Merle and Théo don't want to sleep on their roost at all. They now want to roost at the very opposite, at the back of the coop. I had a system that was more or less working taking Gaston elsewhere while Théo went to roost and hiding Théo from Gaston's sight with panels. This doesn't work anymore. So now not only is Gaston really stressed to go roost but once he is on his roost he has only one idea - to walk across the roost go fight Théo. Then the hens, who were really mean already to one another, are even worse, because Merle and Théo have taken one of the preferred place for the hens that are higher in the pecking order. It's complicated and I try really hard to stay calm so as not to make things more upsetting.
With Piou-piou there was a very fragile balance between both roosters and their team, or let's say a way of making them coexist without killing one another. Her disappearance has broken that balance.
How I'm reacting.
I'm putting that part in a spoiler for two reasons. One, it's gloomy and miserable. Two, it's a bit personal. This thread really helps me keep track of my chicken journey and this is part of it, so it belongs there. But I don't feel comfortable sharing.
I knew it would be difficult when I would lose Piou-piou because the attachment I had for her was stronger than for any other chicken. It brings me back to the first losses we had when Vanille and Caramel died a week apart and I sort of wallowed in a muddy dark hole for two months. I was completely taken by surprise then, because I didn't realise at all I would be so depressed, especially since these hens had a stronger bond with my partner. This time I'm not surprised to be so hurt but the death was so unexpected it's hard for me to grasp. Probably because she went from being a feral little runt that did not care at all for humans, to the most familiar and trusting of our chickens, in the process of healing from her wound, she had become very special for us. Apart from my partner I can spend weeks here without talking to another human and Piou-piou at this stage was probably one of the living being I cared the most for.
I can accept how she died. I do feel bad that we could have avoided it, but not guilty, because we really couldn't know. From what we saw and heard I think the wound was quick and clean and if she was terrified, it didn't last.
But it's very hard to realise she's gone. I can't accept she's already a memory. She spent so much time with us that we are constantly reminded of her absence. We keep looking for her and calling her without thinking. It feels so empty having lunch outside without her perched on the chair behind my partner's shoulder.
I know that I will get over it much quicker than with Vanille and Caramel because I understand what's going on in my head now. I'm curious to see how long. For the time being it's grim. My partner, who also cared a lot for Piou-piou, has a lot more distance. He says after Vanille's death he decided not to get too emotional with the chickens. It's unpleasant for both of us that we're not responding in the same way and we're not really comforting each other. My partner is upset at Théo for not calling an alarm. When he's angry he says he's useless now that Piou-piou is gone, and we should get rid of him. It's ugly to say that we both would have preferred if he had been the one killed but I don't think it's his fault, he is upset too, and I don't see why he should take the blame for Piou-piou's loss.
We did agree to take some time after Christmas to double with hardware cloth the parts of the run that don't have any, pour some more concrete on the weaker side, and try to spot any possible weakness for a small weasel to get in.
I can accept how she died. I do feel bad that we could have avoided it, but not guilty, because we really couldn't know. From what we saw and heard I think the wound was quick and clean and if she was terrified, it didn't last.
But it's very hard to realise she's gone. I can't accept she's already a memory. She spent so much time with us that we are constantly reminded of her absence. We keep looking for her and calling her without thinking. It feels so empty having lunch outside without her perched on the chair behind my partner's shoulder.
I know that I will get over it much quicker than with Vanille and Caramel because I understand what's going on in my head now. I'm curious to see how long. For the time being it's grim. My partner, who also cared a lot for Piou-piou, has a lot more distance. He says after Vanille's death he decided not to get too emotional with the chickens. It's unpleasant for both of us that we're not responding in the same way and we're not really comforting each other. My partner is upset at Théo for not calling an alarm. When he's angry he says he's useless now that Piou-piou is gone, and we should get rid of him. It's ugly to say that we both would have preferred if he had been the one killed but I don't think it's his fault, he is upset too, and I don't see why he should take the blame for Piou-piou's loss.
We did agree to take some time after Christmas to double with hardware cloth the parts of the run that don't have any, pour some more concrete on the weaker side, and try to spot any possible weakness for a small weasel to get in.
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