3rd Annual New Year's Day Hatch!!

[thebirdguy]

 

[AK Michelle]

Quote:
I thought maybe kitty was giving the old "big doe eyes"...."you have so many...can I have just one?

my thoughts exactly. how do your cats get along with the chickies anyway? when i had hens they were bigger than my dogs and chased them around the yard (made for hilarious chicken tv during snack time) but now with me hatching, the dogs will be bigger than them i am a little on edge.

I let my cats and dogs see the brooder and even let them smell the chicks, seems to remove all the "Mystery" so the animals are basically bored with the birds.

 

[Dingo]

Quote:
my thoughts exactly. how do your cats get along with the chickies anyway? when i had hens they were bigger than my dogs and chased them around the yard (made for hilarious chicken tv during snack time) but now with me hatching, the dogs will be bigger than them i am a little on edge.

I let my cats and dogs see the brooder and even let them smell the chicks, seems to remove all the "Mystery" so the animals are basically bored with the birds.

My dogs help co-parent. They've helped raise feral kittens, budgies, emu, quail, and chickens. I figure the dogs will be around them anyway, might as well get them use to being sniffed.

 

[Melissa Rose]

Quote:
I let my cats and dogs see the brooder and even let them smell the chicks, seems to remove all the "Mystery" so the animals are basically bored with the birds.

My dogs help co-parent. They've helped raise feral kittens, budgies, emu, quail, and chickens. I figure the dogs will be around them anyway, might as well get them use to being sniffed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v215/rouenduck/dogs023-2.jpg

I had the most precious little golden dog named Chelsea whom I recently lost to cancer. One evening she had what I thought was her little wind up mouse over by the fireplace and was licking it contentedly for at least two hours. When I got up to go pull it's string to my surprise it wasn't the wind up mouse it was a tiny baby opposum

The poor thing was sopping wet from all of her attention but perfectly fine once it was blowed dried

Dogs are amazing creatures aren't they

 

[LeasureChix]

I have a JRT and a Yorkie. Each time we have baby chicks the JRT is hoping for chicken nuggets. The Yorkie is a 4# farm dog. She herds the goats, the emu and helps with the chickens. If I tell her "chicken" she'll go round them up and even pin them down until I can catch them and get them back in their yard. It helped when I had free ranging banties early this year. Little Lucy would keep the deck a "chicken-free zone". I think the funniest thing is watching the 4 pound yorkie chasing the 150 pound emu!

I'd really like to get a guardian dog but I don't think DH will go for it. Our next dog will be a bulldog puppy. He wants to wait until he has more time.

 

[notinoz2007]

such a sweet story melissa rose. thanks to everyone posting about my concerns. i guess i just wont worry about it for now and do a proper introduction when the time comes

i know i'll be sitting by the brooder for 6 weeks so my dogs probably will too.

 

[LeasureChix]

Quote:
What kind of dogs? There are some that will kill chickens, no matter what. They can't help themselves. Sweetest dogs on the planet but instinct is over powering.

My cats like to go hang in and around the chicken coops but it's for hunting rodents, not chicks.

 

[champer]

I love Maremmas, I recently lost mine to kidney failure; she was a special dog, as is your Allessandro. I haven't had the heart to look for a new dog yet.










Quote:
I asked this same question... but the reverse on the AK board. You know, when it's totally dark for a month how do they get up and go outside? Do you need lights...

I got the whole thread up in arms

Hmm, I haven't been on the AK thread, probably a good thing....

At my house, my birds all seem to start thinking about roosting around 8:30 pm in the summer. Some will still be out till 9 or sometimes 10, but the majority are up a tree or in the coop between 8:30 and 9. In the winter I supplement with light the birds go in when it's dark outside but stay active in the coop until the lights go out.

This past fall I purchased an LGD pup, a Maremma (who is the most amazing wonder-pup alive) AND we built a new barn with auto doors, so next summer the birds are on their own. If they don't go inside before the doors close, Alessandro will be protecting them through the night.

Here's his baby pics, he's huger now, about 5.5 months old and somewhere on the high side of 60 or so lbs. His dad is 125lbs.

Oh, and gratuitous plug for Maremma's, if you see ads for Coldwater Creek with big white dogs in them, they are Alessadro's brothers from a previous litter. Bea-u-ti-ful!

 

[debs_flock]

This was our LGD Sofi, an Akbash and some of her Dorper friends.

I'm afraid I don't trust any of my three Border Collies or my Great Dane with the chickens. In their cases, good fences make good neighbors.

Deb

 

[LarryPQ]

Good afternoon all!

I had a chicken morning: Re-tied the netting on the far end of the run, cleaned out that portion, kicked the choc silkies out of the one quarantine pen, hosed the prodigious amounts of poo they left on their house off, moved it to the now-secure end-of-run-pen, and tossed them all in. In short: I moved the chocolate silkies.

Then I pushed the brooder over to the new silkie pen, and somehow managed to catch all the teenagers in there without them flying out to be eaten by the dogs. They got tossed in the new silkie pen to finish growing out.

Next I disassebled the old silkie pen, in hopes the DH would un-bolt it from the wall. Once he does that, I can clean out the OTHER quarantine pen, where my breeders are.

Finally, I went into the main coop and run. I did some post-rain clean up, and filled all the feeders.

OH! I also put pastrymama's eggs into lockdown. They are due on the 21st, but since I always have early birds, I turned off the turner a day early.