Trouble in River City

Calamity has hit our little urban farm.  It all started innocuously enough.  Our peeps have been happily co-habitating in their coop.   The older girls ('the Four' to differentiate them from 'the Five' and 'the Seven') have been leaving the coop in the mornings after Bryce lets them out, and they have been having dandy days doing their little chicken things in the run.  The Seven (the babies) have had the run of the coop.  All has been harmonious, and we were even thinking of singing a little Kumbaya.
      Of course, nothing can stay the same, and this seems to be true for us.  Or it is excessive pride.  The Seven have had a few escape artists who have somehow gotten out of the coop, but it was intermittent, and I was always able to get them inside fairly quickly.  Well, today was different.  They all did the houdini thing, and were outside.  I was at work, Bryce was gone until early afternoon.  She returned to a disaster.  There was a pack of evil crows, now newly named mother f@#$*ing crows in our house.  They had clustered on the roof and a few were attacking our little Seven.  Bryce returned to find one gone, one dead and one in a crow's clutches.
     Truly, Bryce is the heroine here.   She leapt into action, and wrestled the evil marauding crow (I do not exaggerate here) and rescued our little peep.  She gathered up all the frightened but otherwise unscathed girls and tucked them into the coop.  She brought our little injured girl inside to protect her.
When I got home from work, we together managed to chase the other two MFing crows out of Brandis' run, which is completely enclosed.  They must have crawled in through the chicken door.
     Our little injured peep is still touch and go.  She has one mutillated eye and was in shock all afternoon.  It is still unclear if she will make it, but she has been drinking and seems more active.  We will keep her inside tonight and see how it goes.   If she survives, she may become my favorite, for persevering in the face of such an aggressor.  Perhaps we could call her Calamity Jane.

Giving some love to our infirmary peep

     This tragedy has been grossly unsettling (and very sad) and a real eye-opener.  I somehow didn't appreciate that the crows would be our enemy.  All peeps will stay inside the coop for a couple days.  Evidently crows will return to the scene of the crime, and I don't know if we can be confident that they won't attack again.  I love our coop, but a more secure enclosure may now be in order.  Stay tuned.