OK, here’s a piece of advice for new chicken owners: inspect your coop on a regular basis. Check the structure for holes, rot, rust — any way a predator could get in.

One awful summer I faced flock carnage.  I couldn’t figure out how my chickens were being slaughtered in the evenings, locked up in their coop. This went on for three nights and I was starting to panic as the body count mounted up. I was about 8 months pregnant – I hauled my gigantic body on top of the coop to discover hundreds of little muddy raccoon hand prints, and a corner of chicken wire that had been peeled away as an entrance. Grrrr.

When your chicken wire starts to get rusty, weak, or bent out of shape, it’s a good idea to peel it off and slap on a fresh batch. My sweet husband spent the weekend doing this for me, check out how nice it looks! The original wire lasted almost 3 years, but I was about a year overdue on this update.

My chickens are the same age, and grew up together from chicks. As tempting as it is to add 2 more ladies to my flock of four, I will not acquire additional birds until this flock dies out. Introducing birds from different flocks into your existing flock is one of the quickest ways to kill off your chickens.

When I did do this at the old place, I would give then entire flock prophylactic antibiotics. Not a great option, since the eggs had to be chucked and I want to avoid antiobiotic resistance. But, I was able to keep most of the birds alive. Don’t listen to me – read Gail Damerow.  She’s my favorite chicken author for advice and reference. If you’re planning to keep chickens, I’d recommend reading The Chicken Health Handbook first, and keeping it on hand for any health questions.

Well, a week after the chicken vote and the city is in the process of pulling permits together.

If you’re interested in getting your chicken permit, call Nashville’s Environmental Health Division at (615) 340-5653. You can add your name to the list and they will call you when the paperwork is ready to go.

My ladies are so excited!

I have a sixth sense about my chickens. I knew I had trouble when Josie didn’t come running when I called her. After tromping through the honeysuckle, I found her hiding in the underbrush, a newly-minted cyclops. It’s morbidly interesting, I’ve never had this problem with a chicken. Her eyeball seems to be completely gone, just a bloody lump. There are no other apparent injuries, so my best guess is that she got extremely unlucky and was pecked. The area of injury does not have any suspicious items, like barbed wire. If it was a raptor, I’d expect to see talon injuries. A mammal would have just ripped her apart. So, we’ll blame her sisters (aren’t you glad your sisters don’t play so rough?)

Josie is sitting in a large tupperware box at my feet. I am going to flush her socket with saline and hope for the best. She seems a bit perkier this am, so I’m hoping she’ll recover soon. Photos seems a little much a this point. Ironically, our daughter suffered an eye injury in the corresponding eye, but a day before. Fortunately her eyeball is still intact, but it’s quite a a shiner.