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
Back to normal after some cool off time under the deck.
So.......remove the empty buckets! Or weight them down or something. darn plastic predators.
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
Back to normal after some cool off time under the deck.
So.......remove the empty buckets! Or weight them down or something. darn plastic predators.
