Thanks all. Def not a predator attack. Only thing we’d get around here would be foxes or feral cats and if one of those got into the run, we’d be missing chickens not feathers.
Hopefully it’s just stress and being literally hen-pecked.
Separating out some of the hens as I have done, into a...
We inherited a small flock of four elderly hens and one handsome rooster (Rusty) when we bought our house. We added 9 pullets (3 each of ISA Brown, Black Australorps and Rhode Island Whites) Things have gone well, they're growing and laying quite prolifically now. But about 2 weeks ago we...
What about adding some Guinea fowl to your flock? They eat rodents as well as ticks, fleas and other bugs and will chase off snakes and loudly warn of other predators sniffing around. They’re more likely to peacefully coexist with your chickens, need pretty much the same conditions, eat the same...
I succesfully mingled the flocks on Sunday. Did it at feeding time so everyone was distracted by food. Opened all the internal doors so they had loads of room to roam. Things went well. A little bit of pecking and bossing around but nothing too violent.
There's still two distinct flocks but any...
Cheers. The doors are correct so the only way into the second open run is through the green area. I’ve got that one closed off at the moment to let some clover and plants grow out for them so it’s not a big deal. The covered yellow area is pretty large.
Both roosting areas are each around...
Thanks for the advice everyon. Its a long weekend this weekend and I'm around the whole time so I might do some shuffling of the birds around the different pens and see how they react. If that goes well I can look to open the gates on Monday and see what happens. If not, leave it for another week
I believe the older hens are Australorps which are pretty good layers and I'm pretty sure it's the same two hens doing most of the laying - it's typically one very small light coloured egg or one very large darker tan egg, and very rarely we get a third mid-size cream coloured egg. The...
We recently bought a house with a fairly palatial coop and a small flock. One rooster and four older chickens. I don't know their ages but we get one, at most two eggs a day, some days none at all. Previous owners stated they were elderly and not laying much anymore so this is expected. The...
Thanks.
We’re in Australia so the predators are mainly introduced species like foxes or feral dogs. There are hawks but the free range area I’m looking at will have some tall trees for shade and protective cover. We’d fence the yard area in as well as possible to keep out predators (as well as...
We are soon to be moving to a 14-acre property in the Southern Tablelands of NSW in Australia. The climate is hot in summer (35°C) cold in winter (1-2°C) but unlikely to ever snow.
The property has a nice chicken coop that we'll be putting to use but there's another small fenced animal pen...