Recent content by chesapeakechickens

So after a bunch of research today (and way too many gruesome videos) I am nearly certain that this was a Cooper's Hawk. The evidence that was left looks just like many other Cooper's Hawk predations I saw. The feathers were all pulled out clean and left in a pile right there. The bones and...

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE AND I AM NOT A LAWYER. These are just my observations and understandings from numerous phone calls and emails to government officials today. I just spend a good portion of today nailing down the details on this very topic. In our state (Maryland) it is not considered a...

The feathers were very neatly plucked out. Not wet or looking chewed which made me think either a coon or a raptor. Is it typical for raptors to eat just the neck meat like this? I was thinking that a raptor would have torn her up quite a bit more to get to the good bits inside. Her neck was...

Sounds reasonable. Thanks. Would a fox attack look different? She was within a foot of the initial attack (according to the feathers) and only about 10 feet from the coop door. I do believe that this attack was interrupted as we were searching the area for quite some time and she was still a...

I know it's just anecdotal but I thought Coons generally ate the heads off first. Also this was at around 3 pm. Aren't they generally nighttime hunters?

We went out to put the ladies up for the night and about half of the flock was missing. After nearly an hour of searching we found all of the missing birds hiding very well and many playing dead. (We've never seen this behavior before) Eventually, Josh found Susan with only her neck flesh eaten...

So, a little over a week ago we started giving pellets to the girls. All the sudden we seem to have had a drop in egg production to the tune of at least 10 eggs in a week for our 10 chickens. That seemed like a big jump considering we are having more daylight now than a few weeks ago...

Quote: I can hear the can of worms creaking open... Some folks won't give their birds anything but a trusted commercial feed. Others free-range their birds and give them as little commercial feed as they can get away with. And, of course, everywhere in between. The answer I see most often...

...maybe a dumb question, but where do you buy whole grain oatmeal, is it also fit for human consumption, and what are the bag size options?

Trainfullachickens is my oldest son, and you all who said they must not get many treats are right. We have kept them to a minimum. We're still new at this and what we've read said not to feed them too many treats or they will get too fat and not lay as well. So, probably we are "too careful"...

Quote: First I love that 3 Mainers answered... And chesapeakechickens... with your name I'm assuming you're in Maryland? That's where I'm originally from. The winters aren't bad enough temperature wise to be too worried, as long as your girls have somewhere to go away from wind (like a...

Thanks for the great responses...keep them coming if you have anything else to add. I know that our ladies will be just fine as we have read about so many of you who have much colder temps than we do. However, when I went out there this morning and it had gotten down to somewhere around 19...

still new at the chicken thing here...just wondering if the ladies can eat a little suet (meant for birds) once in a while? I guess you wouldn't want them to have much so they get fat. So, if the answer is yes then the next questions are - how much, how often, is there a homemade...

Today we got 9 eggs from 10 hens! Woo hoo! They are all 39-40 weeks old and we are supplementing their light.

Quote: No, it was from eggs that are about a week old. We do not have a rooster.