Disappearing chicks?

[piglett]

At the time they were about 3 weeks old old and they were tiny...

way too young
i wait till they are atleast 8 weeks old & i still keep an eye on them
if i am leaving i put them in the coop.
if you train them you can call them with bread
that is how i get mine back in the coop if i am leaving for any amount of time



piglett

 

[fobesy]

It was just an estimate... But now I'm super careful with my chicks... Tonight I went out at 10:00pm and went to check on them and put them in their cage which is in their bigger cage with no roof on it so I was worried about raccoons getting in and hurting them... I don't think I'm that good of a chicken owner....

 

[fobesy]

way too young
i wait till they are atleast 8 weeks old & i still keep an eye on them
if i am leaving i put them in the coop.
if you train them you can call them with bread
that is how i get mine back in the coop if i am leaving for any amount of time



piglett

Yeah... I live right near game lands so it wasn't a good idea leaving them like that...

 

[centrarchid]

It was just an estimate... But now I'm super careful with my chicks... Tonight I went out at 10:00pm and went to check on them and put them in their cage which is in their bigger cage with no roof on it so I was worried about raccoons getting in and hurting them... I don't think I'm that good of a chicken owner....

We all loose birds now and then. I have had them for 40 years yet still killed eight by smothering in one night. Some losses are more preventable than others.

 

[fobesy]

Yeah. I haven't had chicks since I was 7 but now I'm even more irresponsible... let's just say I'm a teenager... But the weird thing is that my americana chicks were the fastest and the Brahma were the slowest but all the brahamas lived and all but 1 americana died... I think they were in 2 groups and the group with 3/4ths of the americaunas and 3 Brown leghorns got attacked...

 

[piglett]

It was just an estimate... But now I'm super careful with my chicks... Tonight I went out at 10:00pm and went to check on them and put them in their cage which is in their bigger cage with no roof on it so I was worried about raccoons getting in and hurting them... I don't think I'm that good of a chicken owner....

it's a learning process, that is why we are all here

 

[fobesy]

it's a learning process, that is why we are all here

Yup! I think I've learned more about chickens than I ever hoped for! But that's not necessarily a bad thing...

 

[fobesy]

Ummmm my chicks are missing again!! But this time they were in a cage in a cage! I lost a brahama and a ameracauna. What could it be this time???

 

[centrarchid]

It is time to get a live-trap of some sort. Set it right next to where your birds sleep. It will target raccoons and opossums but also occasionally catch domestic cats which are capable of taking small chicks from cages.

It is time you look into cage design and how birds use them. Raccoons are very good at forcing their way in but often will not invest effort if prey / eats not already almost within reach.

 

[fobesy]

Good thing my dad has tons of traps! But what I don't understand is that they stayed in a little cage thing that locks in the front... when I went out this morning it was still locked! And it's impossible for anything to get to them,because the holes in the cage are too little for anything to fit in!