East RIver - South Dakota - Page 11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fancy Feathers 

I don't know anything about pigeons but those are pretty, I like the pied one.

Do you have a pic of your off-color silkie? If it's black with gold around the neck it's probably considered Black, with leakage.

 

Here's another pic from yesterday, shows how tame the chicks are :)

This is a cute picture!

Woke to find 19 of 23 chicks dead. Thanks to my husband (EX) dog!!   It was my last straw with that destructive dog, that has destroyed so many things, including a solid wood 100+ year old oak floor, numerous pieces of furniture and my sculpture garden (including landscape timbers and concrete benches! ) Last night, my husband went to get his dog which was tied up on the east side of the house. Found him INSIDE the house, having forced his way in via the french doors and beside the love seat couch he had torn apart! So he brought him home fuming mad. NEVER checked on my brooder. However his dog had RIPPED through his kennel fencing too prior to his forced entry into the house...and destroyed the shelter (never killed any birds directly)... leaving them exposed to the elements. The rain storm took care of the rest.  I cried and cried when I saw the babies all dead. Only three survived. I lost all my bantams , all my australorps  , all but one of my orpingtons  . 19 in all! They were just feathering out      and were doing so well. He didn't try killing them, but instead ripped down their heat lamps and pushed their shelter tub so it could fill full of water! 

I can't even replace them locally since you can't get the breeds locally! 

The only "good" thing that came from this is my husband finally saw the level of destruction that dog has been doing and how insanely out of character most of it is for a dog! He took him to the Humane Society we got him from and told them to WARN future adopters of his behaviors! They told us he was an "escape artist". But they didn't give us any warning of how destructive he was and how he had to be imprisoned in a kennel that had a concrete floor and WIRE/metal only kenneling. YOu can't leave him for even 5 minutes or he will destroy things! I was a prisoner due to his demands for continuous companionship with his "human pets"! It was an insane situation and my poor chicks paid with their lives! 

I'm so upset. Angry with myself and so upset! I keep thinking about how he layed in my home comfortable and dry while my baby birds suffered exposure and death because of his tantrum yesterday!!! I beat myself up for having not personally gone and done the evening chores, but instead trusted it to another family member (because he was giving me a break since I've been under so much stress).

Predator Attacks! NIGHTLY 

  Some think its a raccoon and others suspect a weasel. So far I've had one bantam taken the first night.

The next night I had two bantams, and one heavy breed hen, one duckling...a nest of duck eggs, and the duck hen that was on the nest! Plus one heavy breed chicken (hen) and all my chicken eggs, plus to fatally injured but alive heavy breed hens (I had to put them down due to the severe brain injuries of both).

The third night the predator took my two surviving ducklings which I had relocated to another "fortified solid wood box"! 

The next day fortified the chicken coop even more and tried to make sure all the ducks pens were secure. Next morning... the last duck hen & her drake, plus another drake were missing (all but a few feathers); PLUS all my baby pullets had been slaughtered in their brooder and left dead in the brooder.

So we spent another day fortifying pens & HOPING beyond hope we have done what is needed to protect survivors! We moved the chicken tractor housing my breeding muscovies to a graveled driveway area, so it would be harder for any digging (that's how they got into my brooder and killed 15 chicks).

I also baited two live traps a friend lent me. Hopefully we can trap the critter causing us this nightmare and save the rest of our birds.

We have caught 1 coon & two skunks in the live traps. Definitely been nasty losses for the first time in many many years of raising poultry. Its like the flood gate was opened & all those years in the past were corrected in this one month of June!

I lost my young pullet bantams (26), then their replacements (16), then my 3 silky hens, then my disabled pet drake duck, then my 2 breeding duck pairs, then my young ducklings I ordered from Ideal; then 6 heavy breed hens over several nights; and then 5 of my pigeons! 

Each night it was a different format and different coop broken into and slaughters taking place. But it seems we may be making headway. Three nights we have been without any successful assaults on coops. No signs of digging (mind you I cut down the 4 ft tall stinging nettle in my neighbor's yard and laid it around the coop!). This was additional to the brick foundation that is there & the solid wood walls that now have been put up to replace ventilation screening. 

My entire flock of butchering drakes are being fostered at a friends coop while I deal with the predator attacks. So I still have to bring them back at some point.

My three surviving pigeons are now housed temporarily inside my house, in traveling kennels. It was the only solution I had that allowed me to immediately remove them from the coop, once the coons broke into the coop by tearing out the ventilation screen. 

Ironically, the Pigeon Rescue group I got my king pigeons from now wants the survivors back! They claim they are "worried for their safety". I guess California doesn't have coons. My son wrote them asking them to cite where in the adoption contract he gives them to right to demand the birds back (that I paid a hefty amount to adopt). They relented stating there was no such clause. But I would never adopt from them again, nor recommend it to anyone else. They seem to think they get to run one's life once you adopt one of their rescued pigeons. In the future I will just purchase pigeons from breeders closer to home.

Does anyone have a setting hen or electric incubator in eastern SD that they'd like to have some eggs to try to hatch? I've got "a few" DZ eggs that were given to me and I only have one hen setting so I'm willing to spread the eggs around, if others are wanting to try the crap shoot of hatching some. Some are bantam and others are light weight and others heavy weight breeds that they came from. Could be an interesting mix for people, and with the heat, may end up helping to rebuild flocks. 

I don't have an incubator, so I'd love to "deal" with someone near Brookings to have a few hatched out with their hen or incubator, to help me replace all those I lost to dogs & coons this year, which included my entire replacement flock! Agh!! And with the heat they aren't willing to ship live birds right now, which is understandable.

As for the update on the coon assault... its reduced. A second one was catch in the live trap but by the time I went to collect the live trap to take him elsewhere, he was dead. Appeared to be ragged and unhealthy so it may have been a mercy for it in the long run (though I didn't poison it, just baited it to go into the live trap).

We still have a coon or skunk digging by the entrance, but I'm sure its frustrated as I have driven 3 foot rebar rods into the ground along the poultry coop. They dig and dig but can't get in. When they dig open an area, I add shards of glass to the hole they made, then bury the hole up again, so that can start all over the next time they come to the coop, with with a few sharp surprises. It seems to be working. They are slowing down in their efforts. So I am now repurposing every glass object I would normally toss into the trash, to slowly build my "underground glass moat". It has done a better job then the spendy repellents from the ag store.