A Bielefelder Thread !

[Coop de Grass]

Or create a small stream that fills the pond?

I'm big on multi-tasking.

I would love that! But, the pond is just behind the house to the left. The coops and the runs, are against the back property line to the right side! It would be gorgeous, but the stream would be really long...There is a slope, but I have a feeling that when he was mowing there might be a few complaints as well!

I love the idea! I will have to take a photo just to show you what I mean.

 

[Faraday40]

Such a cute little orp & chicks. I have her twin sis, Cookie. My Cookie is nicknamed "the Bantam Menace" because she' so much faster than my LF orps & steals all their treats. She's also more vocal about things. Of course, she has another nickname when she's broody...."Cookie Monster" . She went broody 5xs last year. We let her hatch 3 xs.

She's just hatched her 1st chicks for 2016 on Wed. (We stopped her broodiness in February & April.) I'll have to take some pics of the new chicks, but here are some past pics.








No! No, Cookie! Don't hatch that!


Cookie playing Barbies with my daughter.


I still prefer the XL birds, but our 2 bantams provide much entertainment.

 

[Coop de Grass]

I am so sad right now. They weren't Bieles, but I lost 8 chicks to raccoons tonight. I went down to do the final lock up at 10:30 instead of 9, and the carnage was horrible. 6 EEs that I hatched from eggs I got from my stepson, and 2 CCL pullets that I bought from a local hatchery.

I am so grateful that the big girls were inside the coop and the door was closed. The little ones were looking inside the coop today, so they would have been inside within a week. For now they were in a run that is predator proof when the door is closed. It wasn't because the little ones were having so much fun chasing bugs that I didn't want to lock them up.

Tomorrow is a day for reinforcing the week parts of the run.

THanks for listening to me.It is good to have friends.

 

[DesertChic]

I am so sad right now. They weren't Bieles, but I lost 8 chicks to raccoons tonight. I went down to do the final lock up at 10:30 instead of 9, and the carnage was horrible. 6 EEs that I hatched from eggs I got from my stepson, and 2 CCL pullets that I bought from a local hatchery.

I am so grateful that the big girls were inside the coop and the door was closed. The little ones were looking inside the coop today, so they would have been inside within a week. For now they were in a run that is predator proof when the door is closed. It wasn't because the little ones were having so much fun chasing bugs that I didn't want to lock them up.

Tomorrow is a day for reinforcing the week parts of the run.

THanks for listening to me.It is good to have friends.

I'm so sorry to hear this. That had to be devastating to see.

 

[UGLYFOOT]

 I am so sad right now. They weren't Bieles, but I lost 8 chicks to raccoons tonight. I went down to do the final lock up at 10:30 instead of 9, and the carnage was horrible. 6 EEs that I hatched from eggs I got from my stepson, and 2 CCL pullets that I bought from a local hatchery. 

I am so grateful that the big girls were inside the coop and the door was closed. The little ones were looking inside the coop today, so they would have been inside within a week. For now they were in a run that is predator proof when the door is closed. It wasn't because the little ones were having so much fun chasing bugs that I didn't want to lock them up.

Tomorrow is a day for reinforcing the week parts of the run. 

THanks for listening to me.It is good to have friends.

So sorry for your loss. .. I have been fortunate (knock on wood) that no predators have been around. My mom lost one to a coon recently, it climbed over her 8 ft fence!

 

[Honora]

I am so sad right now. They weren't Bieles, but I lost 8 chicks to raccoons tonight. I went down to do the final lock up at 10:30 instead of 9, and the carnage was horrible. 6 EEs that I hatched from eggs I got from my stepson, and 2 CCL pullets that I bought from a local hatchery.

I am so grateful that the big girls were inside the coop and the door was closed. The little ones were looking inside the coop today, so they would have been inside within a week. For now they were in a run that is predator proof when the door is closed. It wasn't because the little ones were having so much fun chasing bugs that I didn't want to lock them up.

Tomorrow is a day for reinforcing the week parts of the run.

THanks for listening to me.It is good to have friends.

So sorry to hear that. 8 chicks; that is awful. Last Fall I had chicks with broodies outside & they were in a dog crate and two were killed by a possum. So sad.

 

[Sylvester017]

So sorry for your loss.

.. I have been fortunate (knock on wood) that no predators have been around. My mom lost one to a coon recently, it climbed over her 8 ft fence!

Raccoons are nasty predators. They have dextrous manipulative little claw fingers that are quite strong to tear open wire, doors, windows, climb stucco/rain gutters/brick/chainlink/block walls, and they are not afraid to charge at humans or guard dogs. The city raccoons are even more clever and have adapted to city and suburb neighborhoods. Can you tell I hate raccoons?

 

[Coop de Grass]

I'm so sorry to hear this. That had to be devastating to see.

Thank you, Christine.

I found out that it could have been so much worse. I checked the camera in the coop, and saw that the timer is off, so the door didn't go down until 9:50. I heard the chicks. There were 3 separate attacks between 10:11 and 10:15. I almost lost all of them.

I think that I am going to go and sit with them and have coffee.

 

[Coop de Grass]

So sorry to hear that. 8 chicks; that is awful. Last Fall I had chicks with broodies outside & they were in a dog crate and two were killed by a possum. So sad.

Thanks. We have predator proof run attached to the coop with a people size door. It is surrounded on two sides by another run that was fairly predator proof, and that also has a door into the external run that is fenced and has netting over it, but is definitely not predator proof at night.

The chicks were in a dog house inside the second run. They were always outside after the big girls went into the coop. I would let them be out for a bit to chase bugs. Then I would go down and close the door as it got dark. I got distracted last night, and my Dad asked me if they were all locked up when he was going to bed.

Raccoons are nasty predators. They have dextrous manipulative little claw fingers that are quite strong to tear open wire, doors, windows, climb stucco/rain gutters/brick/chainlink/block walls, and they are not afraid to charge at humans or guard dogs. The city raccoons are even more clever and have adapted to city and suburb neighborhoods. Can you tell I hate raccoons?

They are pretty impressive, and we do have them here. We also have possums. I hate that I lost them because of my own carelessness. No matter how I try not to make them into humans, I manage to connect to them in some way. What bothers me the most is that because I was careless, they were terrified.

So sorry for your loss.

.. I have been fortunate (knock on wood) that no predators have been around. My mom lost one to a coon recently, it climbed over her 8 ft fence!

They climb and dig, and try to get to whatever they want. My step son (who gave me the eggs to hatch) lost his flock of ducks to a ooon when it climbed through the window of his coop. Now he has hardware cloth over the windows, as do we.

Thanks, everyone, for listening to me. And for your hugs.

 

[Honora]

Such a cute little orp & chicks. I have her twin sis, Cookie. My Cookie is nicknamed "the Bantam Menace" because she' so much faster than my LF orps & steals all their treats. She's also more vocal about things. Of course, she has another nickname when she's broody...."Cookie Monster" . She went broody 5xs last year. We let her hatch 3 xs.

She's just hatched her 1st chicks for 2016 on Wed. (We stopped her broodiness in February & April.) I'll have to take some pics of the new chicks, but here are some past pics.








No! No, Cookie! Don't hatch that!


Cookie playing Barbies with my daughter.


I still prefer the XL birds, but our 2 bantams provide much entertainment.

Cookie is awesome. My hen Paloma is not as attentive a mom as my Splash bantam Orps were last Fall, but fortunately the other chickens are used to chicks now so they don't bother the little ones when Paloma wanders off and forgets about them. The Bielefelder chicks are like little latchkey kids; they have to find mom on their own, lol.