Attack of the empty bucket

NellaBean

Graceland Farms
10 Years
Mar 4, 2009
7,261
45
261
Broodyland, TN
My Coop
My Coop
Okay, so I have no idea where to post this. I guess I can consider this a predator? ha ha ha.

I let my two 11 week olds out today, to "free range" in the dog yard. It is a large area, 200 feet of fencing in a half circle, backing up to bottom of a deck/hill.

It is technically my dog play yard, but the dogs stay in the house during the day. It has 4 foot no climb fencing, topped with a strand of electric.....and the perimeter of the property has 5 strand electric fencing. Super hot fencing, runs 8-9000 volts.

So I have let them into the yard for an hour or two here and there......today was the first day they were out alone all day. My cockerel is Mr Attitude, he comes after me to protect her and stays between us and herds her around.....so I figured he would help keep an eye on my girl. There is a large deck overlooking the yard that they can hang out under for shade and shelter, tons of grass and plants and wild raspberries and a nice tree with shade. It is a nice area to spend the day.

My biggest worry was a cat jumping in through the deck railing (5-6 foot drop), a hawk, or one of them flying over the fence.

I get home today to the sound of evil cockerel crowing away at the back deck.

No pullet.

He is running around and crowing and just throwing a fit.

Eventually I find her under an overturned bucket. I had a huge "muck bucket" (20 gallon) full of water and a smaller black bucket full of water.....I had dumped both of them yesterday as I was afraid they might flap around and land in one and drown. So I dumped them both and left them empty. Apparently she tried to jump onto the edge of the smaller empty black bucket and it flipped backwards and over her, trapping her underneath.

It is in the upper 80's today, and she was trapped under a black bucket in the sun. She was alive when I found her but panting heavily and obviously trying to cool herself. She seems fine now.

So, beware of empty buckets! I think it was the perfect storm where the bucket was empty and on a hill and she happened to land on the downhill side of it so that as it flipped it gained momentum to cover her.

I almost ended up with cooked chicken! Accidently.


Here she is afterwards. Looking a little worse for wear
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Back to normal after some cool off time under the deck.
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So.......remove the empty buckets! Or weight them down or something. darn plastic predators.
 
I think your rooster was slacking.... he couldnt take on a plastic bucket? he shoulda pushed it off of her... what kind of protector is he?
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Glad she's okay!
 
I had something similar happen once. Last year I used a clean oil pan (never used for oil) as a water dish up on cinder blocks. If most of the water was gone, it was light and when they lit on the edge they often upturned it. One day I reached for it and it moved away from me, just like someone was pulling it with an invisible string! Scared the daylights outta me! I got the courage to pick it up and released a damp and irritated d'Uccle cockrel!
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Good thread, good warning. Might prevent a worse accident for someone else. They get themselves into such fixes.

Br sure you trap that bucket and take it many miles away, now.
 
ok here's a crazy story - the same thing happened to me!

however, i blamed the neighbors dog for grabbing Pebbles, one of my favorite hens and best layers. i was so mad that i made my hubby go out THIS INSTANT and buy $300 worth of fencing to keep that darn dog out and was plotting how i was going to stomp over there and accuse them of letting their bad dog loose.

so

FIVE DAYS LATER i decided to go and move that plastic tub in the hen yard - and there she was! and she jumped up! and i screamed and she screamed and then we both ran (in opposite directions at first i was really startled). but then there was hugs and snuggles and she was just fine. i couldnt believe it. we had even had several 90* days and i cant believe she lived. and she's still goin' strong.

so we called it our "Bucket Of Pebbles" story and wow was i glad i didnt stomp over there and give the neighbors the business about their bad dog!
 
My rooster was very unhappy about his missing girl. He is not a very nice boy even though he is still less than 3 months old.....and is actually going to a new home this weekend. But he does take good care of his girl. I was surprised to find her MISSING when I got home today. I figured he would be the one missing if something were to happen. He was throwing an absolue fit.

Don't worry, I have taught that bucket a lesson! It has been sentenced to a lifetime of hard labor. I grabbed it by its handle and threatened to fill it up if it didn't stop attacking the chickens.
 

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