5 White Silkies Stolen

[cochinbantam-lover]

What beautiful Silkies, some people are really losers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is it possible you could get them back I wonder, that would be so great!!!!!!!!

 

[SilverPhoenix]

This is so awful--it makes me really sad and angry!

I really hope you find them again somehow. I know I'll be looking out online, and I'm sure everyone else here will be, too. Good luck. I'm really disgusted with whoever did this...

 

[ultasol]

I am certain that crossposting to boards of interest to your local poultry exhibitors and/or your breed club would be appreciated. The more people know about the thefts, the less likely they are to happen again, and all the more eyes will be on the lookout for her missing stock.

Amy, I am sending positive thoughts your way. You've had more than your fill of poor luck these past few weeks, it's about time you get a break. If you need anything, you know where to reach me.

 

[Tala]

I would bet it was somebody either from the show, or who knew which birds were the winners. Somebody really close to you. It would have to be a breeder to steal a rooster, I mean us regular people can't give them away!

Some people like that will make you think that you shouldn't ever trust anybody!!!!!!!!!!!! (you shouldn't......just sayin'.....but I sometimes do)

I had 3 chicks stolen once, nothing like your prized birds, but still the anger and disbelief!

There are padlocks on both of my gates now....

 

[destiny_56085]

Scared.
Frustrated.
Pissed-off.
Confused.
Vengeful.
I'm just home from work now. I had to put on the happy front for all my customers at work while trying not to cry or slam my fist into a wall. I'm facing the fact that I will probably never see those birds again. What really pisses me off is that they knew exactly what they were looking for. I have 2 of those 6 month old white cockerels from Connie. One is an excellent breeder bird and the other was the drop dead gorgeous one. I have my older 2 white cocks that I bred last year. There were 14 white hens...the 4 older birds and the 10 one year old gals. The theives took the best cockerel, the absolute best young hen, and those 3 foundation hens who weren't even in condition. There were younger gals that weren't quite as nice, but totally in condition and yet they didn't take them. Whoever it was had an extremely good eye.

I am kicking myself for not having the personalized wingbands on them. I spent a whole afternoon and went through 25 of the bands just to get them on 5 of my buffs. I knew I had that show last weekend and didn't want them having bloodstains on them, so I put them off.

Pretty much impossible to put the whole barn on lockdown. Its a huge old dairy barn with tons of entrances. The doors where the horses and donkeys come in/out are open so they can get at the water trough. The most I can hope is that the donkey kicks them in the hoo-hoo's if they attempt going in through there. I already have all the front gates wired up to the electric fencer because I got sick of neighbor kids coming to pet the horses. The cattle will be back in less than a month. I dare anyone to use those entrances with 30 beef cow/calf pairs and 2 angus bulls in there. I can lock each of the individual birds pens but it won't stop anyone with a wire cutter. I do have brothers that hunt alot and have buddies. I am borrowing a bunch of the night vision game cameras. I have all the neighbors on high alert for any strange vehicles in the yard. Tomorrow morning the sheriff is coming out. I have a huge dog but he's out of commission. He just had a leg amputated a couple weeks ago due to my farrier hitting him in my yard.

I guess I'll find out more in the morning.....

 

[msteresaann]

That is just heart breaking!

It did make me wonder what kind of reception you'd get if you took the chickens into a tattoo parlor!
I would not count on whoever did this being long gone. People that do this kind of thing are usually very sneaky. Lets hope they are also very stupid, and get caught.

 

[saddina]

I'm so sorry. Please call the last show or 2 they were in and let them know about the thefts as well. There's a chance it was someone who had access to your paperwork (with your address and such).

 

[Tala]

Quote:
Are wingbands REALLY that much more secure than legbands??? I have personalized legbands, coz my thieves are the common neighborhood teenage types, but honestly, you could cut them off with diagonal cutters if you were smart enough (and co-ordinated enough, takes about 3 hands)
What's to say that a desperate person wouldn't just cut the wing band as well?

I've never used wing bands (but was considering it) so it's an honest question. Seems to me like short of a tattoo there isn't a good way to truly PERMANENTLY ID your birds.

 

[destiny_56085]

I keep thinking back to the day of the show. It was held by 4-H kids as a learning venture and to raise money for their own cooping. There was alot of kids with questions and I yes I answered tons of questions as I was getting my birds prepped that morning. I talked about everything...feeding, conditioning, bathing, conformation, etc. This is the stuff you see at every show. I handed out business cards with my home address in town (not the farm address) and e-mail. Nothing out of the ordinary there. What really came to mind were these older 2 Asian men....1 was tall, mid 50's or so,and spoke very good english. The other was shorter, balding and didn't know any english. I recognized them from the restaurant there in town. All morning long they kept coming up and asking questions. They first kept bugging me with "How much?" I strongly emphasized these were not for sale. About the 5th time I said I would not even sell these if offered $500 each. And then they started in "You got chicks?" I had some extra black and buff ones along that day to sell, but no they definitely wanted white only. I told them clearly that I wasn't selling my good show birds for them to eat....they replied with "No we want to raise them!" Yeah to eventually eat..... I told them there was a swap there the following weekend and they might find something there. They kept up with the questions..."You got many at home?" I never did answer them on that. They asked "What you feed them, they no look like silkie we seen before." Well no crap, they had been dealing with hatchery stock before. These 2 guys could clearly see which birds placed in what order by the band numbers on the coop cards. The show winning stock I could understand. Why they would take those 3 old hens doesn't quite fit the picture. Could they have followed me home that day? I will definitely be bringing this up to the sheriff in the morning and let him go check out their homes.

 

[destiny_56085]

Yes these wingbands are permanent. They would have to take a good chunk of the flesh of the wing too to get them off. They are riveted into the skin and not like an earring. If you didn't know they are there, most would go unnoticed too.