Good news, bad news.

Last night I stayed in town after market to attend a meeting.  I looked at the clock and figured that the hour and a half round trip did not justify a half hour at home.  That's not even enough time to skin a peck of tomatoes!  So I caught a quick bite and sat in the parking lot at the library, listening to the last of an excellent audio book while I munched on my carry-out supper.  By then, it was time to go into the meeting.

Good meeting!  I'm on the board of the Michiana Organic Growers Cooperative (MOGC, affectionately nicknamed Moxie) and we were working on the structure of committees.  Afterward we got into a lively discussion about grass farming and renewing the soil.  We were all pretty much agreeing with one another at high volume.  All of a sudden I realized it was dark.  The chickens!

I hurried to my car and sped home.  Of course they were already roosting in the Moop, so I did a count.  If you are following this blog, then you know the magic number is 16.  There were 14.  I couldn't even write about it last night.  Too upset.  I just hoped that they had escaped and were roosting safely outside the pen.

When I got up this morning it was still pitch dark.  I had plenty to do before the sun was up, but as soon as I saw daylight, I rushed outside to see if there were two chickens waiting to get back in the pen.  There was one girl!  Cause for celebration!!  I called for the other, looked in some bushes, and finally resigned myself to the fact that now there are 15.  I thought I had stopped up their escape route, but obviously I hadn't.  When I checked the spot I had fixed, I saw most of a chicken wing.  Poor little thing did herself in escaping.  There is an old rusty roll of barbed wire just outside the pen there, and she must have gotten caught up in it.  Some critter helped himself or herself to the remains, I'm sure.  That is as it should be.  She didn't go to waste.

I piled a bunch of firewood over the place where she escaped.  Time to order the electric netting.  It is just so expensive, and I was hoping that my makeshift pen would do.  But I don't want to lose any more of the chicks.  If you want to see a picture of a Golden Campine, go here.  http://www.mypetchicken.com/chicken-breeds/Campine-B25.aspx  They are beautiful birds!  Wish I still had 26 of them.  Sigh . . .