We have six chickens that are four months old. I love them and talk about them all the time to whoever will listen. Well.. a woman at work listened and decided that she wanted chickens, too. She had actually been wanting to get them in the past, but my talking about my own made her all the more determined. Since she did not have a place to brood her chickies (her hubby didn't want the Bentley getting dusty with a brooder in the garage), I agreed that I would brood them for her if she paid for food, electricity, etc. She ordered nine babies and I loved having these sweet chickies in my garage brooder for the past 10 weeks.
This past weekend we decided the chickies would be OK to go live at her house as she has a nice, warm coop and the weather wasn't supposed to be too bad for at least the next 10 days. My girls and I loaded the babies in my car and drove them to this lady's house on Sunday. Her coop is very nice.. warm, secure and spacious. However, I was shocked at her run. I knew she was wanting to free range for part of the day, but I had talked to her at length about how she would need a secure place for the chickens to be while she was at work or she would risk loosing them to predators. The fence was mostly contractor orange fencing. part of the "fence" was a stack of straw bales, and the "gate" was a piece of plywood leaned up across a space between a tree and the stack of straw bales. She has two sheltie dogs and a cat, all of whom were freely running in and out of the run.
I was hesitant to give her the chicks, but she put the other animals in the house and declared that her shelties would soon be good livestock guard dogs as soon as they got to know the birds. I made some suggestions for making her run more secure but she wanted them to be "as free range as possible" (her words). Honestly, I don't think this fence will even kept the chickens IN once they get big enough.
So, against my better judgement, I gave her the chickens.. After all, they were hers since she bought them and paid for everything.
Just got news today that one of the shelties killed FIVE of the baby chickies - two of whom had become my absolute favorites while they were at my house. She had let the chickens into the run, let the dogs out, then gone back into the house to decorate her Christmas tree. I won't be surprised to hear if more are dead tomorrow from internal injuries.
I'm so bummed. Poor babies.
This past weekend we decided the chickies would be OK to go live at her house as she has a nice, warm coop and the weather wasn't supposed to be too bad for at least the next 10 days. My girls and I loaded the babies in my car and drove them to this lady's house on Sunday. Her coop is very nice.. warm, secure and spacious. However, I was shocked at her run. I knew she was wanting to free range for part of the day, but I had talked to her at length about how she would need a secure place for the chickens to be while she was at work or she would risk loosing them to predators. The fence was mostly contractor orange fencing. part of the "fence" was a stack of straw bales, and the "gate" was a piece of plywood leaned up across a space between a tree and the stack of straw bales. She has two sheltie dogs and a cat, all of whom were freely running in and out of the run.
I was hesitant to give her the chicks, but she put the other animals in the house and declared that her shelties would soon be good livestock guard dogs as soon as they got to know the birds. I made some suggestions for making her run more secure but she wanted them to be "as free range as possible" (her words). Honestly, I don't think this fence will even kept the chickens IN once they get big enough.
So, against my better judgement, I gave her the chickens.. After all, they were hers since she bought them and paid for everything.
Just got news today that one of the shelties killed FIVE of the baby chickies - two of whom had become my absolute favorites while they were at my house. She had let the chickens into the run, let the dogs out, then gone back into the house to decorate her Christmas tree. I won't be surprised to hear if more are dead tomorrow from internal injuries.
I'm so bummed. Poor babies.
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