Alpaca farmer new to the site

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Gravel Rider said:
Hello everyone. I just signed up here, but have lurked for quite awhile. Many Google searches have landed me here, so I figured I should eventually sign up and say hi.

We have a small alpaca farm in Pennsylvania, and are in our second year of keeping chickens. We have five Rhode Island Reds, ten Guinea fowl, and three turkeys. We also just picked up six Barred Rock and two more Rhode Island Red chicks.

We were free ranging them all, but heavy predation and about a 30% flock loss over the course of a couple of months led us to keep them enclosed unfortunately. We love living in the country with very few neighbors, but with this comes all sorts of wildlife, predators included. Of course, predators are dealt with, but the losses were just too high to sustain free range poultry, unfortunately.
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Welcome. I get it. My chickens are a part of my family and I don't want to lose them. I do the best possible "best of both worlds"...a very large secure chicken yard that has 1/2 inch hardware cloth walls and an apron and high quality hawking netting for 1/2 the ceiling and a hardtop carport for the other half.
 
triciayoung said:
Interested... why is your rooster one-legged?
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As a chick his leg was smashed and the other chicken were trying to eat him the owner wanted to kill him so we took him instead. He had a really bad infection and the leg was smashed to the bone and nerves. He had to have it amputated and be put on strong antibiotics. The vet insisted we put him down saying, "he won't make it and when he gets older he won't be able to hop around". But he was a little fighter and full of life eating and drinking fine. So, we went with the amputated route. It was hard because we had to have him in our house in a big cat carrier for 7 to 8 months. Keeping him clean and changing his bandages on his tiny nub. Be he eventually get better. I helped teach him to hop and balance. He is now living out side and a little over a year old. Yes, he will probably have problems as he gets older. But at least he has had the chance to live. He gets around pretty dang good for having one leg and is very happy hopping around having dirt baths 😁🐔❤️
 
Barbours said:
As a chick his leg was smashed and the other chicken were trying to eat him the owner wanted to kill him so we took him instead. He had a really bad infection and the leg was smashed to the bone and nerves. He had to have it amputated and be put on strong antibiotics. The vet insisted we put him down saying, "he won't make it and when he gets older he won't be able to hop around". But he was a little fighter and full of life eating and drinking fine. So, we went with the amputated route. It was hard because we had to have him in our house in a big cat carrier for 7 to 8 months. Keeping him clean and changing his bandages on his tiny nub. Be he eventually get better. I helped teach him to hop and balance. He is now living out side and a little over a year old. Yes, he will probably have problems as he gets older. But at least he has had the chance to live. He gets around pretty dang good for having one leg and is very happy hopping around having dirt baths 😁🐔❤️
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That is amazing! So glad you are giving him a chance at life. ❤️ That takes a special person for sure!

There's a few other amazing stories on here about chickens losing a foot or a leg but one endearing one I read the other day about frozen feet caused one to lose both of their feet and learned to just maneuver on nubs.
 
Debbie292d said:
That is amazing! So glad you are giving him a chance at life. ❤️ That takes a special person for sure!

There's a few other amazing stories on here about chickens losing a foot or a leg but one endearing one I read the other day about frozen feet caused one to lose both of their feet and learned to just maneuver on nubs.
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That's so awesome!!! I believe all critters should be allowed to have a chance. Of course unless they are suffering. But you get it 😁❤️
 

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