Silkie breeding, genetics & showing

[chickendales]

Here in California we have a terrible coyote problem. Many people use donkeys to protect their sheep and it works. I'm assuming they are deadly accurate and vicious! My LF roos can usually deal with hawks but I recently lost a roo to one so we put up a scare crow in the LF pen (too large to cover) and that is working great. I also got two very large roos to monitor the situation...

great pyrenees

 

[Riversilk]

I have an Anatolian Shepherd to guard my farm. She does a fantastic job and I have zero loss from any type of predator. Her run goes along the outside of my chicken area in a horseshoe shape. She is very good with my chickens and I never worry about her with them. That being said, as a pup she killed two chickens before she learned that that was a BIG no no. She even chases off the ravens that are always coming around hoping to steal food or a chick. Guardian dogs are great but they require appropriate training for whatever they are protecting and you also have to not mind big barking, hole digging and lots of hair! They are very independent dogs and need a good firm but kind leader. If you are not in charge they will be. Since I have had her (almost 8 years) I have not lost any critters including my cats. She took on a black bear at 10 months old and drove it away, She saved the life of my old heeler who was attacked in broad daylight next to my house by a very large bobcat. I let her out and she immediately attacked the bobcat and treed it off of our property. She was bitten on her leg and my old dog and bite marks on either side of her spine. She was sleeping in the driveway when she was attacked. She has run off countless coyotes and even cougars. She treed one that was stalking me when I was out on a walk with my very young children. My anatolian is absolutely fearless but extremely gentle with my children. I love her dearly. I totally recommend them IF you have the right setup and experience with independent dogs. They are definatley not for a casual dog owner. All of the guardian dogs really do best with an experienced handler but they are extremely valuable assets to a farm with stock. Edited to add a pic of her lovely self

 

[peepblessed]

great Pyrenees

I know 1/2 a doz people that use them. Excellent!

I have an Anatolian Shepherd to guard my farm. She does a fantastic job and I have zero loss from any type of predator. Her run goes along the outside of my chicken area in a horseshoe shape. She is very good with my chickens and I never worry about her with them. That being said, as a pup she killed two chickens before she learned that that was a BIG no no. She even chases off the ravens that are always coming around hoping to steal food or a chick. Guardian dogs are great but they require appropriate training for whatever they are protecting and you also have to not mind big barking, hole digging and lots of hair! They are very independent dogs and need a good firm but kind leader. If you are not in charge they will be. Since I have had her (almost 8 years) I have not lost any critters including my cats. She took on a black bear at 10 months old and drove it away, She saved the life of my old heeler who was attacked in broad daylight next to my house by a very large bobcat. I let her out and she immediately attacked the bobcat and treed it off of our property. She was bitten on her leg and my old dog and bite marks on either side of her spine. She was sleeping in the driveway when she was attacked. She has run off countless coyotes and even cougars. She treed one that was stalking me when I was out on a walk with my very young children. My anatolian is absolutely fearless but extremely gentle with my children. I love her dearly. I totally recommend them IF you have the right setup and experience with independent dogs. They are definatley not for a casual dog owner. All of the guardian dogs really do best with an experienced handler but they are extremely valuable assets to a farm with stock. Edited to add a pic of her lovely self

This would be my choice as they are longer lived than the Pyrenees.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
How complicated is it to train these dogs not to eat (or torment) chickens OR cats?

 

[Hawkeye95]

I had a gelding that would attack anything in his pasture...dog, cat, fox, rabbit. If he saw it, he went for it. As far as the hawks go...yes, yes, and yes. They are out in force, they are hanging around my pens also. The silkies don't go out unless they have a babysitter. I wish that I had a BIG dog to act as a guard animal, I only have a chihuahua and she is likely to get scooped up by the hawk as well.

Here in KS, the GP's (great pyrenees) are really popular and are easy to find. I do NOT want a LGD though-- because even though I have 10 acres, I do have neighbors near by and they will shoot about anything that annoys them. I can't see the house to the back of me, but he's about 1/2 mile away or more and I hear him shooting all the time. Those dogs bark constantly and roam. Nope, I just think it's easier to keep covered pens and aprons on the ground. (mine are about 2 inches under the ground)

Hawks are definitely an issue here, especially now with the leaves off the trees. Silkies are only allowed outside at this time of year with STRICT and full time supervision. (They did get to enjoy an afternoon outside yesterday and they made the most of it - sunbathing and digging in the leaves. They do seem to be aware of the overhead predators. They were on the alert constantly. They were quite content to get back under cover when the time came.)

Yeah, you've had a rough year for coyote. I only had one bird die this year. Unfortunately it was my favorite turkey, so that was a real bummer. But I did step up my pens and ripped down one that I had made out of chicken wire and rebuilt with hardware cloth.

I had heard that about donkeys as well. I used to run a boarding facility and had several donkeys that I just could not get along with, so I opted for the llama route

Llamas will run down and kill a coyote, coons, possums, fox...all those little running varmints. My gelding killed a groundhog one time and I was thrilled to pieces! He also took out snakes and mice...he was really confused about being a horse!

Tony Llama is a rescue and has never been handled, so he is a work in progress. So far he has kept my barn area clear of my barn cats, LOL! He likes the silkies but is petrified of the showgirls. He will just have to get over his prejudice once spring comes and he is guarding the coops outside. The hawks have also been terrible and my chickies have also been stuck inside their covered runs until I can be out there to supervise 100%. So far my cockatoo has been the best alert - she sounds the alarm and everyone dives for cover! Unfortunately she doesn't distinguish between hawks and buzzards, so we get alot of false alarms - better safe than sorry!

Has he killed anything yet? If he were at my place, he could have had the opportunity to kill nearly every night! My gelding must be getting really easy going, because the coyote are trooping right up thru the back of my pasture where I have a big pond back there and then have actually worn a little footpath in the prairie grass up to the back of my house! They always come into the yard at the same spot and go check out all of my chicken pens. I've had to fill in holes they dug around them, which is a real irritation. The upside, when it comes time to hunt soon, I know right where they're coming in at. That is awfully good of you to rescue those animals!

well around here many donkeys are breed and sold to ise as guard animals and along with thier stubborness and cockiness they will chase off and attack any threat to your herd but not all animals fiy the criteria so not all can do that but this is the reason why we got mne

Sounds like a plan. With the insane price of grain this year, I certainly don't need any more hay burners. Thinking I have a cheaper means.

Here in California we have a terrible coyote problem. Many people use donkeys to protect their sheep and it works. I'm assuming they are deadly accurate and vicious! My LF roos can usually deal with hawks but I recently lost a roo to one so we put up a scare crow in the LF pen (too large to cover) and that is working great. I also got two very large roos to monitor the situation...

I think most people here have LGD's -- mostly GP's that can run them off and cross fence lines. You should post a picture of your scarecrow! That sounds really neat!! I like the idea of the roo's too-- especially if they are expendable.

great pyrenees

I have an Anatolian Shepherd to guard my farm. She does a fantastic job and I have zero loss from any type of predator. Her run goes along the outside of my chicken area in a horseshoe shape. She is very good with my chickens and I never worry about her with them. That being said, as a pup she killed two chickens before she learned that that was a BIG no no. She even chases off the ravens that are always coming around hoping to steal food or a chick. Guardian dogs are great but they require appropriate training for whatever they are protecting and you also have to not mind big barking, hole digging and lots of hair! They are very independent dogs and need a good firm but kind leader. If you are not in charge they will be. Since I have had her (almost 8 years) I have not lost any critters including my cats. She took on a black bear at 10 months old and drove it away, She saved the life of my old heeler who was attacked in broad daylight next to my house by a very large bobcat. I let her out and she immediately attacked the bobcat and treed it off of our property. She was bitten on her leg and my old dog and bite marks on either side of her spine. She was sleeping in the driveway when she was attacked. She has run off countless coyotes and even cougars. She treed one that was stalking me when I was out on a walk with my very young children. My anatolian is absolutely fearless but extremely gentle with my children. I love her dearly. I totally recommend them IF you have the right setup and experience with independent dogs. They are definatley not for a casual dog owner. All of the guardian dogs really do best with an experienced handler but they are extremely valuable assets to a farm with stock. Edited to add a pic of her lovely self

Beautiful!!! You're lucky you don't have any owls, but what you do have is really scary! Bears!??! Holy crow, I'm glad I live right here! LOL A friend of mine has two GP's and she has been losing birds every night for two weeks. Finally figured it was an owl and it was flying in thru the top of her barn, and then walking down on the floor, and getting the birds or pulling heads off. She caught it in the act. Her GP's never heard the owl come in.


I have another poultry show this weekend. I'm really looking forward to it. My son is going to do Juniors and I even signed up a few birds for myself to do Open. It's supposed to be another Silkie special meet. I'm not sure exactly what it is. That's just all it said on the catalog-- any ideas what that means? The show is at our State Fairgrounds, so I'm sure there will be plenty of people coming in from all over -- Oklahoma, NE, etc.. Is the ASBC informed of all the special meets and what is going on?

 

[Riversilk]

Yes, we have a LOT of wildlife where I live. I originally got her to help watch over the kids when they were outside. We had a really bad cougar problem here for awhile. A very brazen one who would come right up on your porch. It killed my neighbors llamas and also one of my goats she had over at her house. a llama and one goat in a single day.

I have had owl problems before I kept her fenced right around the chickens. I see them at night through the windows from bed, but no losses thus far. She is a dedicated worker.

As for keeping these types of dogs, they WILL roam as big of an area as they possibly can. We used to let ours just run loose as we live pretty rural and all of our neighbors knew her and appreciated her working their places also. She eventually decided that chasing off the cars on our steep canyon road was a good idea and that ended her roaming days. We now keep her in hot electric goat/chicken fencing. We had to tie her for awhile as she decided she would just jump out but she is now tricked into thinking she is tied in her fence by leaving a little bit of rope dangling from her collar from a snap.


As for training them, there are whole books dedicated to the task. When I caught her with a chicken she had killed at 12 weeks old I just made her think she was going to die by growling very deeply and rolling her over. I told her leave it! which she already knew as a command. After I caught her in the act she never did it again. She also has to sit an wait while being fed and to go outside or come inside. Basically you own everything and they respect you as the leader and your rules. If you slack off and have a more dominant dog they will start slipping into being in charge. I recommend a middle of the road dominant personality. My kids can make her sit and lay down and wait for food.

 

[blessedchick]

WOW! I am sure counting my blessings that I just have coyotes, coons and hawks to worry about! Bear??? Cougar??? No wonder, Riversilk, that you got your beautiful girl to protect your kids!!

Tony hasn't had the opportunity to kill anything yet...that I know of. So far he patrols the barn at night and I find him sleeping next to my grow out pen in the mornings. He's learning to come when he is called and is slowly learning that scratches behind the ears can be enjoyable. He is wickedly interested in my little dogs, so they have to be watched very carefully. The first day that he was out with the silkies Hanks, my splash roo, came walking over to him very boldly...completely curious. Tony took one look at that motoring Tribble and hightailed it back to the safety of his stall! I sit with him in the evenings, hen of choice in my lap, so he is conquering his fear of silkies (LF are fine..."normal" looking??). He's come a long way in a month!

 

[chisNchickens]

Hi here is Buttons my son Cody's white silkie hen who was BB at the Nationals and the JR show champion.

Dreadfully behind on here but just had to say...

Gorgeous girl.

 

[chickendales]

light went out in my brooder last night lost all my less then month old chicks, its so sad work so hard and loose so much

 

[Adoravachick]

light went out in my brooder last night lost all my less then month old chicks, its so sad work so hard and loose so much

oh no! I am so sorry.

They are such fragile little things.