BTW I am no longer "Mum of three Rhode Island Red x Wyandottes - Goldie, Specky, and Pecky Sue" but can't seem to change this signature. Just the little bantams for the past few years.
Thanks everyone, that has given me a few things to think about. I will check thoroughly for insects and vermin in the coop. My gut feeling is it started when we accidenlty forgot to shut the coop door til late one night, and added to the cat presence, they haven't felt safe since then. But I...
A few questions about the neighbours' cats stalking our chickens.
Recently they killed two new young pullets we had bought. I had naively thought they'd be okay as we hadn't had a problem with our previous batch, but I now remember these cats were not around when they were little.
The big...
If anyone doubts what dogs can do...
My sister has four chihuahuas. Tiny, frou-frou lap dogs, sleep in her bed, rarely even step outside the house... about as mild and domesticated a creature as you could imagine.
She brought home a couple of rescued kittens, and had them in one of those...
Yippee! Three eggs today! Either the comfrey and kelp worked wonders or it was a coincidence... I also gave them more veges than usual and less grain.
Hope it lasts!
Many Australian creatures are indeed among the most vicious and poisonous on earth - sharks, crocodiles, lethal snakes and spiders.
But for the average backyard chicken here, I think the worst predator is an introduced species - the plain old fox... same problem all over the world...
And maybe...
Thanks for the idea... One of them did do that a while ago. Found a stash of seven or eight eggs.
However I had a really thorough search yesterday and nothing to be found.
I have made some changes to their diet though, and already one of them has laid an egg! Yippee!
I found a book by...
My chooks have also stopped laying!
We have three R.I. Red X Wyandotte hens, about 1 year old. They were great layers until about three months ago, when they all started brooding. Brooded for about two months, then one by one stopped brooding and are now acting normal, but still no eggs.
One...