Arizona Chickens

[chicksurreal]

X2! & they will be back.. Your chickens are their future meal..

X3

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

This morning I went to let the girls out of their coop just like every other day, they free range in our yard and put themselfs to bed when the sun goes down. This morning after letting them out and filling their feeders and water buckets I came inside to make some coffee, and noticed they were were acting strange, 3 were pearched on the back of lawn chairs making so much noise. I went out to see what was going on, walked the yard and found 3 more hidden on the side of the house.... One was missing. I found a "poof" of feathers on the opposite side of the yard but no chicken. We have a 6 foot cinder block fence. Up to this point have we not had any problems with predators getting in. We do have quite a few crows but I haven't had a problem with hawks. So I've been trying to figure out what could have hopped our wall, grabbed our dear Roxy who was close to 8lbs and hopped the fence within the 2 minutes I was inside. We live on Broadway and Kolb in Tucson, I have seen coyotes in the area, but my husband said it sounds more like a bobcat. Anyone around here seen any large cats roaming lately? What do you all think? Coyote, Cat, Hawk?

Most likely coyote or bobcat, that part of town is lousy with them. We have a wall like yours and managed to go three years before they found us (while eating all of our neighbors' birds) and now we're a regular stop for coyotes. We've had nearly daily visitations by coyotes over the past couple weeks, with all sightings before noon. Now that they know where to find easy birds, they'll be back.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Unfortunately there are so many predators around that will get your chickens, it's hard to say what it might have been.

We lost two chickens to our dog today. She has never even looked at the chickens in the ten months we've had them and today she decides to grab two of them. So fast we couldn't do anything about it even though my husband was right there. She will NEVER be trusted around them again, but it doesn't help the two that died.

Oh no! After 10 months too. I'm sorry you lost the two, but it could have been worse.

 

[chicksurreal]

Oh no! After 10 months too. I'm sorry you lost the two, but it could have been worse.

Thank you. I know! I'm so glad my husband was out there to see it and intervene. She is now on permanent house arrest when the chickens are free ranging. It was a huge shock because of the lack of interest before, but now we know.

 

[Macboat]

That's very good of you to do Syl. I'm the youngest of 3 kids that have never lived with their mom and dad. It's amazing that it took me 30 some odd years to figure out exactly what a disservice I was given thanks to them. Until I married last year and experienced what a real family should be like with her and her parents. I was tossed to Great grandmother until she died, then grandparents and then a great aunt, then mom and step dads and that's where things got real bad and I ended up in Brenham, Tx. at a place called Miracke Farm Inc.

Your story is amazing! Thanks for sharing Dave.

 

[bellsbeauties]

The girls have been since "the incident" and will be from now on locked in the coop. My husband says he's going to sit by our glass sliding door at dawn to see what returns. Not sure what his plan is but he's determined to scare whatever it was... And hopefully enough to keep it away?? We have a young daughter and two small dogs who frequent our back yard, we're more worried about them being out at the wrong time. Don't want our yard to become a known easy food source. Any suggestions on how to take our yard off the buffet table?

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

The girls have been since "the incident" and will be from now on locked in the coop. My husband says he's going to sit by our glass sliding door at dawn to see what returns. Not sure what his plan is but he's determined to scare whatever it was... And hopefully enough to keep it away?? We have a young daughter and two small dogs who frequent our back yard, we're more worried about them being out at the wrong time. Don't want our yard to become a known easy food source. Any suggestions on how to take our yard off the buffet table?

Good questions, other than complete lockdown, I'm not sure there is an easy legal solution. On our last attack the coyote jumped the wall sometime after 10 am and grabbed a chicken right in front of me. My presence was no deterrent. It did, however, drop the chicken when I ran at it like a mad man, ready to stomp it to death. Last week my wife and I were moving the vehicles around in the drive way and a young coyote pup walked right between us, hopped the small wall in the front yard and walked down the side of the property towards the back--completely uninhibited by our presence. I ran to the spot in the back yard where they usually jump the wall and looked over to find it sitting right there on the other side. It did run away when I yelled at it. So, while yelling and throwing things at them will drive them off, it doesn't keep them away for long.

 

[Macboat]

A little chicken - we share a similar dream.  I have worked with just this population of teens for about 10 years.  Have worn many hats.  I love what I do and am particularly concerned with the girls that are aging out of the system.  Many of whom turn to the streets or other undesirable means of providing for themselves.  Mine is a Green Dream. Wondering how to get funding from new sources associated with self sustainability, etc.  I would love to teach the older teens life skills incorporating the responsibility of caring for animals, preparing the soil, researching growing seasons for different harvests, growing their own food, perhaps online academic courses, sewing lessons, selling what they grow and make for honest (although modest) income.  Some of these teens have absolutely no idea how to sew their torn clothing.  Sometimes, just having a new clean shirt that fits makes them feel like a million bucks. I have been sharing my dream with different people recently and there seems to be a shared interest with some little twists of ideas.  I know there are folks out there wanting to make a positive difference.  I also understand what K9Dave says is absolutely true about the teen wanting the support/change.  One of the most troubling experiences I had was a highly intelligent teen who was in the care of CPS.  She was being offered full college tuition to ASU if she agreed to have some minor oversight by CPS in her life after she turned 18.  This girl had previously shared her dream of wanting to be the first to go to college in her family and to become a doctor.  Her college prep scores were through the roof.  She turned down the tuition stating she didn't want CPS in her life anymore.  I still am heartsick about this and do my best to understand her perspective. 

It was heart wrenching to hear the girl's story, how did she turn out to be now?

 

[chicksurreal]

The girls have been since "the incident" and will be from now on locked in the coop. My husband says he's going to sit by our glass sliding door at dawn to see what returns. Not sure what his plan is but he's determined to scare whatever it was... And hopefully enough to keep it away?? We have a young daughter and two small dogs who frequent our back yard, we're more worried about them being out at the wrong time. Don't want our yard to become a known easy food source. Any suggestions on how to take our yard off the buffet table?

Aside from doing some sort of covered pen to keep them contained completely, there will always be the threat of predator attack (and possibly even then).

We live right up against a wilderness area, so we know that there will always be threats from any side (we did not expect it from our dog, though), but living in a town you don't expect it as much. It still happens all too frequently. Unless you can cover an area of your yard top to bottom, you will probably have wild animals looking for a free meal once they know it's there.

 

[chicksurreal]

Good questions, other than complete lockdown, I'm not sure there is an easy legal solution. On our last attack the coyote jumped the wall sometime after 10 am and grabbed a chicken right in front of me. My presence was no deterrent. It did, however, drop the chicken when I ran at it like a mad man, ready to stomp it to death. Last week my wife and I were moving the vehicles around in the drive way and a young coyote pup walked right between us, hopped the small wall in the front yard and walked down the side of the property towards the back--completely uninhibited by our presence. I ran to the spot in the back yard where they usually jump the wall and looked over to find it sitting right there on the other side. It did run away when I yelled at it. So, while yelling and throwing things at them will drive them off, it doesn't keep them away for long.

Wow. they're pretty brazen, aren't they?

I guess hunger trumps fear.