R.I.P. Pepper 5/25/09 - 7/17/09

Tragedy befell us way back on July 17th. Pepper, one of the Delawares, was viciously murdered by a neighborhood cat. It did upset me, largely because I should have been paying attention and realized sooner that she had slipped out under the backyard fence. When it did occur to me that she was missing, I ran around to the front yard and then through a neighbors yard just in time to see the culprit dash across the street with Pepper in it's mouth. I'm only now able to blog again. Perhaps I'm being a little dramatic; that's what Renae thought the day it happened when she told me "It's just a chicken". I'll remind her of what "just" is come her next birthday.
So, obviously, the remaining chickens have gotten bigger, but the rate of change has slowed down. We do have some concerns that Horace may be a rooster; the tail feathers are noticeably longer than the other two's tail feathers, and Horace seems larger and is heavier. But, Horace has not tried to crow, nor has his/her comb grown any more the others. And the size difference really isn't that much. We remain hopeful. We don't want to be down to two chickens.
So, aside from the slaying of Pepper, there is not much to report. We still have them on starter feed, though imagine we should get them the next level of feed pretty soon. Also, they free range quite a bit, and we give them produce from our garden and table scraps, though I will not give them chicken- it seems wrong to turn animals into cannibals.
I'd thought about why Renae was so cold about the death of Pepper, and perhaps it's because the chickens don't respond to her the way they do to me. When I come out to see them, they rush to the coop door. They follow me around while free ranging, and all I have to do to get them back in their coop is to walk into it myself. Renae has to enlist Felix to chase and catch them. They poop on her shoes and glare at her when she is near. The last two claims may be exaggerations. The video below is of them chasing me.