Reviews by janepeppler

I miss them terribly. Does their coloring make them more likely to be taken by predators? The two times I've had them, when the attacks came, they were first to go. I loved how they would be the first to move in and snatch some food delicacy when the other chickens held back.

I've loved my Australorps. The last one I had died defending a chick she'd adopted. She was tough, but no match for a head-on confrontation with a fox. The chick survived

I started with six Ameraucanas and five got killed by predators. The survivor will have nothing to do with the chicken coop, rain or shine or cold she is roosting high in an oak tree next to the house and in the morning waits by the coop for me to let the other chickens out to play. She'll never let me near her. Perhaps this is due to her traumatic childhood. I'm sure she's laying - somewhere - but doubt I'll every see her eggs.

My chickens are fully free range in close proximity with weasels, foxes, coyotes, dogs, raccoons, and hawks. My one Rhode Island Red has survived several holocausts and still lays though she is several years old. Gotta admire that toughness.

I've had black Javas several times but I'm not going to try them again because they do not survive in my free-range environment. You'd think they'd do well because they're so dark, but somehow I've had 100% death with them. The black Australorpes, on the other hand, are good survivors.

I have just one. She has survived some dreadful predator attacks we've had around here (fox, weasel, raccoon, and hawk) and so I am glad she's skittish. We can't take our eyes off her. She often roams on her own.