Sponsored Post Backyard chickens are a kid's best friend

[Sylvester017]

Lost one of our sweet Dominique pullets we raised from chicks to our cursed Satanic SoCalif heatwaves -- 122 degree index because of humidity! It's 100 today but feels hotter -- It's summertime, chickeneers! Get those little boys & girls outside to feed cold treats to your birds! The interaction with the kids keeps the chickens busy so they don't vegetate in the heat and die!

 

[Butterscotchbitesfinger]

Lost one of our sweet Dominique pullets we raised from chicks to our cursed Satanic SoCalif heatwaves -- 122 degree index because of humidity! It's 100 today but feels hotter -- It's summertime, chickeneers! Get those little boys & girls outside to feed cold treats to your birds! The interaction with the kids keeps the chickens busy so they don't vegetate in the heat and die!

So sorry for your loss it is always sad when stuff like that happens

 

[Sylvester017]

So sorry for your loss it is always sad when stuff like that happens

TY for your uplifting comment. Yes, losing any pet stinks! I consider my little flock my pets as they are so sweet and personable in their own way. Wish I had grandkids to come visit our little flock -- we have all hens and they LOVE to interact w/people. Even the one skittish hen we have will come forward boldly up to visitors for treats time!

 

[Butterscotchbitesfinger]

Oh my flock don’t obey fences LOL bu that’s okay our neighbors don’t mind and we have a ten acre property

 

[drumstick diva]

It is so great when kids get involved

 

[Sylvester017]

Oh my flock don’t obey fences LOL bu that’s okay our neighbors don’t mind and we have a ten acre property

How wonderful to have so much property! What concerns do you have as far as predators? In our 'burbs we have city raccoons and possums and sometimes loose dogs which is why we finally built a block wall around our little cottage and double gates to get through to our chicken yard. If not for a Good Samaritan neighbor who chased off two stray dogs who broke our gate to get to our first chicken coop we might've lost our very first chickens years ago. We took a lot more care about fortifying the yard after that. So far the neighbors have been nice about our little flock of 4 hens for the past 8 yrs because the girls can get noisy sometimes as chickeneers know!

 

[Butterscotchbitesfinger]

We are surrounded by trees so we don’t really have hawks, I mean we get them from time to time but not like they come back daily. Our real issue is with foxes........
We are in Australia so those are our two main predators. And Snakes we get snakes only in Summer but they aren’t too bad, the worst it’s done is kill one silkie pullet when she came too close. The snakes we get are red belly black snakes ( the venomous ones). We are lucky the snakes we have are not aggressive and will only attack if felt threatened. My hen Ivy doesn’t think ten acres is enough for her and so the minute your not looking she will wander in lol

 

[Sylvester017]

We are surrounded by trees so we don’t really have hawks, I mean we get them from time to time but not like they come back daily. Our real issue is with foxes........
We are in Australia so those are our two main predators. And Snakes we get snakes only in Summer but they aren’t too bad, the worst it’s done is kill one silkie pullet when she came too close. The snakes we get are red belly black snakes ( the venomous ones). We are lucky the snakes we have are not aggressive and will only attack if felt threatened. My hen Ivy doesn’t think ten acres is enough for her and so the minute your not looking she will wander in lol

Poor little Silkie that got killed by a snake -- I love little Silkies. Visiting kids love our little Silkies. I'd be heart-broken to lose any hen to any kind of predator. I guess when you have a lot of acreage it can't be helped but it still hurts to lose any pet. Even in our little cottage backyard we take extra steps to provide cover for our little flock of 4. We have 5 dog houses for the hens, pop-up canopies, low lean-to shelters, a covered patio roof over the coop and 4'x 8' pen space under the coop where they can hang out, raised garden beds where they can hide under the vines, benches, lawn furniture, and potted plants -- anything that provides cover for them. The less open flying space for hawks the less likely we are to lose a hen running to hide. Our adjoining neighbors and we have all chopped down our old trees to discourage city raccoons, possums, rats, squirrels, nesting hawks, etc. We also get very bad Santa Ana Winds that tear up trees and send boughs flying into windows and tearing up roofs so trees are not our friends here in our SoCalif suburb neighborhood. Currently Calif has some really bad wild fires because of Santa Ana Winds and people have been trapped and killed and whole communities of houses burned down.

 

[Butterscotchbitesfinger]

Oh no that’s terrible
My chickens don’t stay on one yard lol they walk all over our ten acres so there isn’t much we can do to keep them safe.....
But in saying that I have just spent my Saturday putting up a 6/3 run to keep them safe cause the fox we have just keeps coming back and we can’t shoot it or bait it cause everyone around here has dogs who would eat the bait plus we are not aloud guns in Australia

 

[silkiemother]

this is what me and my roo do after school most of the time and he does this himself