Thanks - I'm not prepared to let her go at this stage. No one will want to take on a non-egg-laying bird, and other than this particular problem, she is a very nice and friendly bird wrt to humans, with a handful of really weird behaviours.
I will keep at it and will try the blinkers tonight...
Apologies for the long post, but it will save a lot of questions in the long run. We've had chickens for 8 years now and introduced chicks to the flock many times and have not had these issues.
3 (was 5) of my 15 chooks are commercial RIR (chickens—I'm in Australia) from an egg farm. We've had...
I lost 10 hens in the attack! it would have been more if I hadn't have come home during the daylight raid! I reckon its cost me near AUD $800-1,000 in total now between cost of replacing the hens, emergency treatment for survivor, dressings, petrol, other hens, borrowing an incubator, chick...
You'll only need one or two nesting boxes at best. My husband made up some wooden ones when one or two of my 22 strong flock (before the fox attack 3 weeks ago) used to use, the rest use a mixture of pet carrier (picked up for AUD $10 each) or plastic storage crates that I have cut a hole into...
I'm sorry to hear about your Silkie and the fox. Chickens have the most amazing ability to heal though as I am learning at the moment, so she should survive.
We had something similar here just 3 weeks ago today. The sole injured survivor (there were uninjured survivors plus one I had to...
I'm new here. this is actually my first posting.
I have my first batch in an incubator right now, though not my first chicks - normally I hatch under broodies. It was totally unplanned after a fox attack decimated my flock taking 10 hens and leaving me with 4 layers, 3 pullets, 1 injured hen...