Consolidated Kansas - Page 1358

Trish - how did it go with introducing him to the other chicks??

 

I came home to a surprise today. Onyx (my BR) was wandering around our back yard and not in the pen! Imagine my shock when she came running right up to me and as I trodded across the yard. DH and I think we know where she "hopped" the fence and put a barrier on it. I really hope she wasn't out too long. I can tell where she hung out - next to the fence with the other birds - cuz of her droppings. I made sure she had access to cold water. Seems to be doing fine though. I'm glad we went to the effort of putting chicken wire around the bottom of our wood fence so she didn't find a way out of the yard completely - although if she hopped over the 5ft fence, she would have easily made it out of the 3 ft fence if she really wanted to. 

tweety, well I was wondering if these other two peachicks would be mean to the tiny one or what would happen, but I took it out & put it in the carrier with the other two & it just snuggled in between them. They didn't seem to even notice it wasn't one of them. It took me until after dark to get everyone situated out there. I decided I wanted to put chicken wire all the way around the dog run on the inside just so the turkeys couldn't stick their heads through the chainlink, so I got out the ties & wow that took a lot longer than I thought it would. I finally got that all done & then had to go catch the turkeys, that was the really fun part. Those turkeys are getting pretty good sized now & when I went to catch them they just freaked. I opened the door on their house & one hopped right out of there & was over by the chicken run. Fortunately I was able to trap it with my net before it got too far. It took me awhile to catch all 7 turkeys, but I finally did & got them all set up in the dog run. They were like wow we have room to run around in here, they were really getting crowded in that small pen they were in. Hopefully they can stay in this one until I get something built for the peacocks & turkeys. I haven't told my DH about that project yet. After I got the turkeys all settled then I had to go clean out the pen they had been in, they're messy birds, & put down some new bedding for the peachicks. I finally got them all set up in there a little after dark. I could hear the little one peeping it's head off & see it walking up & down the fence for the pen. I could also see one of the older ones walking towards it & calling softly to it, so maybe it will take charge & help it along. Keep your fingers crossed that they will show it how to eat & drink. I can't even believe the poor little thing is alive at all at this point, it's so fragile. It really has to have a will to live or it would have already been dead. Wish me luck that these all continue to do well, I've never had peafowl before so this is all new to me. I won't know for quite some time what sexes I have so who knows what I'll end up with. All I know is that all 3 are India Blue, that part I do know.

 

I saw on the Wichita Craigslist today that someone in Mulvane has two adult male peafowl for $25 each, that is a bargain, if I had a pen to put them in I would have snatched them up, but I have nowhere to put them right now. I'm having to jockey for pens as it is. Isn't that how it usually is for most of us?

 

I still have a few lavender Orps coming & Cream Legbar chicks, so I'm going to have to make up my mind how many of the Welsummer chicks I really want to keep & then sell the rest. I have Swedish Flower Hen eggs going into the hatcher the 9th, I hope a few of them hatch anyway so I can recoup some of the money I have spent on eggs. I've spent a small fortune lately on shipped eggs with not that much return at all. Danz, you can probably relate. I'm pretty sure I have 4 Welsummer pullets & two roos, so that didn't turn out too bad. I have one Welsummer that hatched earlier on out in the grow-out pen outside along with the oddball white one, which at this point I can't tell the sex of as of yet since it didn't have the markings they usually do. There is a swap meet coming up in Arkansas City this coming Sunday, if I can get up in time I may take a few chicks down there, we'll see, it's awfully early for me.

 

There was some kind of celebration in town tonight, I couldn't tell if it was at the college or where, but it was close because I could hear the music well at my house & heard the fireworks but due to the trees couldn't see a thing. I had thought everything was tomorrow night, I guess I'd better check. Well everyone have a safe & fun 4th.

Devastation here tonight.  At 3pm I went to do a welfare check and refill water bowls.  At 6:30pm, I headed back down there with a bowl of kitchen scraps.  Upon approaching the yard I saw JB, my silkie roo lying in the sun in the middle of the yard and something didn't look right.  I called to him and started running.  He raised his head at the sound of my voice but when I got to him he was in bad shape.  Then I saw a dead body near him, and then another.  Between 3pm and 6:30pm, something got in and wiped out a good portion of my flock.

 

This is the work of dogs.  There was no blood and no one was eaten.  As soon as one bird stopped fighting, this predator moved onto the next moving target.  I built a Fort Knox coop because most of the predators in my area are nocturnal.  I've never even seen a dog here since we moved in, other than my neighbor's dogs who never leave her property.  Yet a passing dog found my coop and my birds and wreaked havoc.  I can't even see where they got in.  DH and I walked the yard multiple times after my discovery and there were no gaps in the fence and nowhere that is dug under.

 

When I first got there I could see only JB and 3 living birds.  As time wore on, birds came out of hiding.  But I am down 10 confirmed dead and 2 are still MIA.  Of the dead, five were roos and one of the MIA's is a roo, which accounts for all 6 of my roos.  That tells me the roos were doing their best to defend their hens and paid for it with their lives.

 

One of the ducks and JB were alive but had broken necks so we had to cull them.  We decided rather than let their lives be a total waste, we would process and eat them and say a prayer of gratitude to them when we do.

 

Needless to say, I am feeling pretty devastated.  3 years keeping hens in Wichita and only lost 2 to the neighbor's dogs next door.  3 weeks living here and 1/4 of my flock is gone in a matter of hours.  DH and I were here - but heard nothing.  He is livid and wants to know what got to them and kill it.  Tomorrow morning we will NOT be greeted by the sound of crowing and I will be reminded of my loss.

I am so sorry! That is awful. I hope the stray shows back up so your dh can kill it.

HEChicken, your post showed up in my email..... Which never happens.... Life here has been so busy that I haven't had much of a chance to read, except very briefly, and no time to reply to anything, since I have to have uninterrupted time to reply when using my phone or IPad- kids always have the computer busy.Fate assured that I would read this news, for some reason, however...

Your loss is weighing heavy on my heart. Wishing you all the comfort a wish can carry!!!

OMG, so sorry for your loss I hope you can find out what got them.

My heart goes out to you.  What a horrible discovery. 

Hechicken, so sorry for your loss. I know it must be very difficult. Are you sure it was a dog?  I hope you can discover where it got in and this doesn't happen again. That is so heartbreaking.

HeChicken, oh my gosh, this is horrible!!  I'm just so sorry, I can't imagine so many dead.  I'm not so sure it could have been a dog if there was no way in.  Do you have a gate or a door that the animal could have pushed on and gotten in?  Were there feathers every where?  Dogs make a terrible mess-- they may not eat the birds, but they spread feathers far and wide.  I remember you talking about how your dogs chased off a dog just last week-- or two weeks ago?  You said that your one dog barely came back, that he was so intent on chasing that dog off the property.  Could it have been that particular dog?  Our neighbors dogs come over and can get in a lot of trouble and be gone before I even know about it, and i'm usually always here.  I hate those dogs!  They are sneaky and fast.  They will come over, and poop in my yard, go dig a hole, and drag something down the road (like my rain spout off the house-- the flexible kind that is removable) in like 5 minutes and be gone.  I know this because I will come in for a few minutes and go right back out side, and all the evidence is there.  If it's dogs, don't be too quick to rule out the neighbors.  

 

Trish-- hope your pea is hanging in there!

HeChicken, that is horrible!  I'm so sorry for your loss!  Just yesterday, I saw our neighbor's dog running past the house on the road.  This particular neighbor lives at least a mile away.  And, as soon as I"m done here, I was planning on letting my birds out to free range (supervised) for a little while today for the first time.   Your story is definitely enough to make me think twice!