Bad luck with chickens... maybe 3rd time will be the charm!

[cluckin nutty]

My chicken raising story begins when I ordered some chicks from mypetchicken. I LOVED my chicks! well by the time they were 30 weeks old I only had 2 hens laying (out of the 16 that I had). No I am not blaming mypetchicken, we had many issues arise with these gals I would gladly order from them again. So, I decided that I would sell most of my chickens and leave the 2 I knew were laying and 3 other hens. I waited it out, noone else started laying I decided that I couldn't afford to raise these guys for only 2 eggs a day. So i ended up selling the others. I always knew that I wanted chickens again but figured I would give it some time before I ordered any others. This past spring I got 8 rhode island red chicks from a local chick seller. 1 chicken escaped, then over the course of approximately a week my ex's dog killed and ate the rest of my chickens. The hens were 16 weeks old and just about to lay but had not yet started... Not sure if the Gods' just don't want me to have chickens but I LOVE them! I am determined that my next batch of chicks will be the one! (I hope) I've decided to get some white leghorns, and a mix of bantams. My favorite chicken out of all the ones I've had has been my little white leghorn, and bantams are just too darn cute! Has anyone else had this many issues with chickens?? I feel like I'm the only one...

 

[write2caroline]

yes sadly. I will not bore you will the details but I have had issues and recently lost all of my laying hens. Point of interest though - chickens mature at different rates and don't lay on any predictable time table. I think with my first batch the chickens were about 24 weeks before the first egg. It takes time. That first egg came in november and then the laying went slow because it was winter but come spring....I had more eggs than I knew what to do with them.

Before you restart. just make sure you address the issues that led to previous loss so that you don't experience that issue again as best as you can and then wipe the slate clean and try not to dwell on the past but look forward to the future with more experience.

Caroline

 

[cluckin nutty]

I am re-building their coop and have since rehomed the dog, I'm thinking all should go well this time around.. I am having some difficulty in deciding how I want the re-furbished coop to be without spending much money, and my over bearing ocd taking control... but I have faith that someday I will have some nice chickens, and a decent little house for them, the way I'd like it to be..

 

[namastemama]

Yes! Oh lets see a bob cat came in and and ate half my flock (which was a real fluke because I live in a major city in the desert and bobcats are not known to this area) and then a dog ate all but one(got rid of the dog), and yesterday she got out and drown in our in ground pool. So I have 8 babies with 2 more that are hatching today and I am hoping for better luck!

 

[cluckin nutty]

See I would expect bobcats. I live in Maine, next to a lake, in the middle of the woods so we have all predators accept poisonous creatures but I just seem to have had scrappy luck so far... sorry to hear bout everyone else's gals can anyone reccomend any particular banyans and y those breeds? Regular fowl would be appreciated as well. Also aproxomately how much feed u go thru with ur number of chickens. Thank you!

 

[cluckin nutty]

Crappy. Bantams. ****

 

[write2caroline]

I had a friend who lived in the hills in LA California and she had a bobcat in her kitchen. She walked in from the Garage tossed her keys and her purse next to the bob cat and walked out of the kitchen before it registered that the animal on her counter was not her cat. Her cat was staring at her from the dining room with eyes a big as saucers but being very very quiet. The dog too appeared to be hiding quietly. She stepped backwards to peek in the kitchen and the bob cat looked at her and started licking its paw to clean its face. - Her purse with her cell phone was next to the bobcat so at first she tried to shew the cat verbally and the cat eyed her amusingly and then got down and went out the doggy door in the slider and off he went.

In San Jose we had raccoons and mountain lions from time to time in our little suburban neighborhood.

As for coops -




These two coops are not fancy but were built from free pallets that were being tossed out. I did purchased the plans from My pet chicken for $9
We had to disassemble the pallets and then reassemble them according to the plans but - FREE is a good thing and they are really good coops. The blue one is my favorite the red one was made from the same plans but altered some. My husband even straightened the nails and reused them - Eagle Scout - A scout is thrifty.

so anything is possible. Lowes, home depot, grocery stores, walmart all get pallets and if you ask nicely you can get them for free without dumpster diving. I will often see a pallet still in a trash heap and toss it in my truck. Also you can get great buckets with lids from bakeries free sometimes just for the asking. Walmart says they recycle them but often than not I can get them. Great for feeders, waterers, food storage, nest boxes - great way to recycle and repurpose something that would otherwise end up in landfill.

Caroline

 

[cluckin nutty]

Thank you Caroline! I like the blue coop as well. I could not imagine walking into my house and having a bobcat just chillen in the kitchen lol. I may copy the blue plan if that's allright? I'm considering getting a few ducks again too, but found a really cool plan for raised cages online somewhere and the person suspended basins set down into the welded wire floor that way the indoor section didnt get ruined by their love of water, the basin could be drained with a valve type system (similar to a kitchen sink drain...) it was pretty nifty! but then I also thought about just putting the ducks and chickens together, however I got worried about the size of the ducks vs. the bantams and the last ducks I had attacked my chickens, very nastily.