Chicken math is striking!!!!! I am debating on adding 2-3 EE pullets to my flock.... Have to figure out how to quarantine though.... What do you all think? They were hatched either in Dec or Feb. $10 each.... good deal or not?
Well crap!!!!
The barred rock is still alive, but she's hurt after more than 24 hours she is still isn't walking around on her own. I have a little bowl of FF right in front of her and she's eating, but hasn't moved.
My final blue Isbar is GONE this morning, once again not a trace. And we put a padlock on the gate so that rules out human. Got down on my hands and knees with a flashlight and searched every inch of the coop and run for some type of track and didn't see anything.
My blue Silkie (that I paid an insane amount for as a sexed chick from my pet silkie this summer) is dead in the coop. Too big to swallow, but no bite marks. Possibly something came in and caused a commotion and the silkie was trampled by the Lav Orps? There was a tiny amount of blood on her wattles on the side facing up, but I believe after something happened to her (injury) she was pecked at because her eyes, neck & rest of her body were fine so the blood on the wattles I don't believe related to her death. I check everywhere for fur to see if some animal could have gotten in, and didn't see anything. My cat slept inside last night (as he does most nights) and he is the one that sits out there and watches them.
My husband doesn't think it's a snake (I have no idea why he doesn't), but that's the only thing I could think of. He says a snake wouldn't kill the silkie, but based on the condition of the body, I really think it was accidently hurt in a commotion like my barred rock.
I'm down 6 chickens in 2 nights and 5 of them were really expensive! And for those that have seen my set up I am so paranoid about predators-- My coop is 6'x6'x6' solid cedar opening to a 20'x25' run that's all metal fencing and about 7 ft up the entire top is enclosed in netting to keep out hawks. I even ran extra chicken wire around the bottom of the run to keep baby chicks from being able to squeeze out. If a snake is getting in it's got to be small enough to fit through chicken wire or slide under the door to the run (which is less than an inch off the bottom of the ground, just enough so it doesn't catch).
I'm googling snake traps now, I don't know what else to do. This is something I thought I'd have to worry about being rural, not right here.
Also, I have 2 rabbits and 2 guinea pigs living under my shed (long story short, we put their hutches in the chicken run and they got out and dug some colony under the shed. We caught them and put them in the hutch and they were all depressed so we let them run. We also have chinchillas which are indoor pets, but my daughter left the slider open while my won was playing with one and it got outside. We've been actively trying to catch it for 2 weeks since they are temperature sensitive, but the thing is fast! I know it's still alive because I saw it sticking it's face out from under the shed this morning. I guess if we can't catch it the snake would pick the easier prey? We leave the hutch door open so they can get food & water. They eat my garden and will come over to be pet, but at night go under the shed. Anyway, a snake should be able to eat one of them unless it's still small I guess. That's why they're picking off my smallest chicks and eating them whole. And leaving my larger pullets dead and injured in the commotion.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
