Chicken update (warning: sad news)

It's been over a week now since our chicken disaster; 

now that it's not so raw emotionally, I can share the sad tale of my barred-rock chicks...

Our barred-rock chicks were getting big and lively, looking like little mommy hens at six+ weeks old!  I had a little wire enclosure that I would take them into the back yard for a few hours so they would learn how to scratch and find bugs to eat.

They made good models for my sketching practice!

To make a long story short, one day, the wire enclosure failed.  

Though no one witnessed what actually took place, I assume that once the wire enclosure failed, the chicks went exploring the wide world, as you'd expect....

To shorten the sad story, we recovered one chick--the one we had rescued from my nephew's place--this chick was hiding in some tall grass.  One chick was found deceased, near the enclosure.  The other four chicks disappeared entirely without a trace.

One of the bird calls we hear frequently here is the high-pitched squeal 

of the red-shouldered hawk.  My theory is that the local hawks took advantage 

of the situation and carried off the others. 

All very sad, but life goes on, and hopefully I am a bit wiser now about the local food chain.  

I got me some more chicks, and the one we called Little Sister is now the Big Sister of the bunch.  I promise to keep a vigilant eye on this batch.  

Wish me luck!